The Distance
by readwritereview20
Summary: Gabby is a Dauntless initiate, during the year between Four and Tris' initiations, who happens to have a history with a certain leader with a passion for facial piercings. This is my version of the history between Eric and Four, and the reasons why Eric is as messed up as he seems to be. Eric/OC
1. Prologue

Hello everyone! This is my first Divergent fanfiction. While I do have most of it planned out and some of it prewritten I love suggestions, plot ideas, and constructive criticism. I do write faster when I hear from you guys in the review section so don't be afraid to review and/or PM me. So without further ado, let the story begin!

I can't claim anything except my plot and OCs

_**The distance is what's killing me  
Time and space have become the enemy  
And what I need is so far away  
And so it goes  
The distance makes it hard to breathe  
My heart won't let go easily  
I don't want to be this far away**_

_**Hot Chelle Rae – The Distance**_

**Prologue  
**

I sit at my desk finishing the report my father assigned me last night so that I can finally go down and eat breakfast before we have to leave. Most parents don't assign homework, but my family isn't like most. My father is one of Erudite's head scientists and expects his children to live up to his legacy.

Today is my older brother's Choosing Day. Andrew is fourteen months older than I am, just enough of a gap that we don't share a choosing day as I will not be sixteen for another three months. While most families are up on this day solemnly eating what could be their final breakfast together, mine are going about life as if it is just an ordinary morning. Andrew has never been anything but Erudite; when I was five and he was six he set fire to our kitchen because one of the experimental lasers he had been working on behind our parent's back malfunctioned. Andrew will choose Erudite, my parent's will beam with pride, and then life will go on as it always has. My normal, boring, Erudite life.

A soft knock at my door distracts me from my thoughts and I gladly abandon my homework to see who it is. I open the door to see my brother's best friend Eric nervously standing in the hallway, ringing his hands together and staring at his shoes.

"Gabriella," He says softly when he hears the door open before looking up and past me into my room to avoid making eye contact, "May I come in?"

I nod and quickly take a step to the side to let him in before softly shutting the door. "What is going on Eric?"

Eric, Andrew, and I had been the best of friends when we were young; in fact until about a year ago we still were, but then he started avoiding me and acting weird whenever we were around one another. If the fact that he is suddenly standing nervously at my bedroom door wasn't weird enough, despite Erudite's feelings toward nicknames, Eric hasn't called me Gabriella since we were five.

"I'm sorry for interrupting," He starts, glancing at the books and papers covering my desk, "I just needed to talk to you before…"

It hadn't occurred to me until just now that today would also be Eric's choosing day too; I had been so focused on Andrew. Eric is between Andrew and I in age, but since he turned sixteen a couple months ago he shares his choosing day with Andrew instead of me. I opened my mouth to ask the first question that came to my mind, but Eric seams to read my mind and answers before I can ask it.

"I'm leaving, Gidget," He blurts out, using the nickname that he had called me since we were small, "But I needed to see you before I go."

"Wh... Where are you going? You've always been so intelligent and inquisitive, everything a good Erudite should be," I pause, trying to scour my memories of him for a time when he seemed like he belonged in anything but blue.

"I can't explain it to you now, and that isn't what matters," He takes two long strides forward and he is standing right in front of me, our faces inches apart. I had forgotten how tall he is, but now it's hard to ignore as I have to look up to meet his eyes again.

"Then what does matter?" I ask, barely above a whisper. The thirteen year old me, who sat up at night thinking about what our children's names would be, is suddenly hopeful but the rational me tells her to forget it. That is, until he answers me by crashing his lips into mine, his right hand sliding up the side of my face and into my chestnut curls.

He pulls back much too soon in my opinion, "I'm sorry if that makes things weird, but in a few hours I'll be gone. If something happened to me or I didn't make it through initiation I would have regretted not telling you how I felt before I left."

With that he is gone, down the stairs before I can even call his name. I faintly hear him politely refuse my mother's offer of breakfast before the door shuts loudly behind him. I reach up and softly touch my lips before pinching my cheek as hard as possible. No, this isn't an oddly vivid dream, so that leaves only one option.

A few hours later I am sitting in the hub next to my mother, watching as the line of sixteen year olds makes the most important choice of their lives. Then it is his turn, he takes the knife and walks to the bowls, his eyes briefly finding mine before the sizzling sound fills the quiet room as his blood hits the Dauntless coals.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hello again! I had planned on updating sooner but I've been really sick lately. So hopefully you all like the first full chapter and I hope to hear from you guys! I wanted to thank everyone that reviewed, favorited, and followed so far: Divergentlover18334, Sphinxed, ****bittersweetangel0128, and my unknown reviewer. Just hearing from you guys and knowing that someone is reading means a lot to me! I made a couple of small changes to the forward to try and make sure that the relationship between Gabriella and Eric is clearer. Eric is just a friend, Andrew is her older brother. **

**As always I can't take credit for anything but my plot for this story and my OCs.**

**Chapter One**

Gabriella's POV

One year later…

Another choosing day, another morning spent at my desk trying to pretend like it's just a normal day. Normally the extra homework assigned by my father would be annoying, but knowing that this might be the last research report I'll ever write for him to grade makes it seem… more important than normal.

I stand up and run my fingers across the spines of the books lining the shelves of my bookcase. I never hated it here; sure I had my moments, moments when the prospect of a safe life behind a desk just like everyone else's made me feel like I would rather jump from the roof. Days when the constant study and research made me want to scream; especially as I watched the children from other factions chase each other and play games on the playground at school.

I pause, listening to the sounds of my mother working in the kitchen, preparing breakfast as if the thought that I might leave had never entered her mind. The rest of the house is silent as my father and Andrew continue whatever work they brought home with them last night.

I open my closet and study my clothes, trying to decide what to wear to the Hub today, finding myself drawn to the bottom dresser drawer. I take out a stack of neatly folded blue shirts and pull out the black t-shirt hidden beneath.

I shouldn't have kept it; it was not the intelligent choice to be overly attached to any possession, especially when said possession is incriminating. However, the black shirt that now lay in my lap was the only link I had to one of my fondest memories, one that only he and I knew about…

_2 years ago_

"_I'm just saying, I think you need to rewrite paragraph three, it's a gross over simplification of the scientific principles behind a complex natural phenomenon. Your teacher will be expecting more from you, Gidget," Eric says, adjusting his glasses as he hands me back the paper I asked him to proof read. _

"_I understand that but I'm going to have to read it aloud, and I prefer to dumb things down rather then get…" I drop my voice to a whisper and put my head down, "Than get harassed by the Neanderthals in my class," I finish as I study the pattern in the surface of the picnic table we always study at. _

_Eric studies me for a moment, "Who has been picking on you this time?"_

"_Justin and his friends," I reply sheepishly, looking from the three Dauntless boys sitting on the other end of the outdoor seating area and back to my friend. _

_A moment later, Eric is out of his seat and at the boy's table, what he thinks he will accomplish, I'm unsure. I smile, pleased that someone is willing to stand up for me, until Justin stands up. Grabbing Eric by the collar, he drags him back to our table. In one fluid motion he deposits Eric at the end of our table and picks up the glass of water I had been sipping from as we worked. The larger boy smirks at me as he dumps the glass on my stack of papers, causing the ink to run and making my homework for every class unreadable, before taking the sopping wet mess of papers and shoving them down the front of Eric's blue polo shirt. _

"_Well that was rude," Eric says softly as Justin and his crew strut towards the door to the gym. When He turns to me I know that he can tell I'm about to cry, "Don't worry Gidget, I'll help you rewrite it all and then we'll teach those bullies a lesson."_

_The next day, Eric and I are studying at our usual table when Andrew rushes over, "You know I'm not usually one for gossip, but this was too bizarre to ignore. You know that Justin kid and the other two Dauntless he is always with? Well I guess they came out of the locker room today after gym in Amity clothes; red and yellow from head to toe. I guess one of the older Dauntless boys in my grade beat them good for it, called them pansycakes or something like that."_

"_What's so weird about the Dauntless beating up on each other?" Eric asks, his expression bored._

"_I guess they keep claiming that someone stole their clothes and replaced them with Amity ones, strange right?" Andrew answers, as he unpacks his text books from his bag. _

"_Definitely," I answer, pushing Eric's backpack farther under the table with my foot, making sure the top stays closed over the black clothes hastily shoved inside._

I sigh, remembering how I had offered to get rid of the evidence, but found myself keeping one of their shirts as a sort of trophy. Of the three boys, Justin has the slightest build, so I kept his shirt as my trophy and between his comparatively small frame and my curves the shirt is only a little big on me.

I slip the black shirt on, covering it with a looser fitting blue button-up shirt and blue jeans. I pull my long curly hair into a high ponytail before slapping on eyeliner and mascara and finally heading down to eat breakfast.

As I take a knife and walk toward the five bowls, my eyes find Andrew's. He has always been my closest friend and confidant, but I couldn't bring myself to say goodbye, or tell him that I had made my choice years ago.

I try to convey that message now through my eyes or at least that I'm sorry for leaving without telling him. I expect confusion, but instead he smiles and gives me a thumbs up. My eyes start to well up and I look away for a moment to blink away the tears.

Even though I had always known I had to leave, I was never cut out for being Erudite, I had been second guessing myself until this moment. The events of yesterday had only added to my worry over my choice, with the words 'Divergent' and 'equal aptitude' still buzzing around my head. I didn't know if I would be good enough to be Dauntless either, what if I can't make it past initiation?

The look in my brother's eyes tells me everything that I need, that he will support me and understand no matter what I choose, but most of all that he believes in me even though I don't. A sudden jolt of courage fills my like I'm being electrocuted.

It is that burst of daring that helps me to smile back as the knife slices into my skin, helps me to finally meet my parents angry eyes as my blood hits the Dauntless coals. Knowing that my brother believes in me is enough to make me positive that I have to be brave and make it through initiation. I have let everyone else I know down by choosing to transfer, but I will prove to myself and Andrew that he was right to believe in me.

Everything is a blur after that, a mess of cheers and running, until we stand among a crowd of Dauntless on the train platform. I know what happens next, we jump onto the train. I have watched the Dauntless children do this for years, they always made it look so easy but I know it won't be. As I see the train's headlight drawing closer, my stomach comes to reside in my throat and I realize why Eric was so set on saying goodbye just in case he didn't last the day.

"What's wrong princess? Is someone too scared to jump?" I turn to see Justin standing mere inches behind me, close enough for me to feel his breath on my neck as he talks. "You don't have to jump; you can climb back down to the nice safe street and walk right on over to the factionless district."

I turn my attention back to the train as the members start to jump on, "Why would I do that?" Then turning back to him I add, "Oh! Do you want me to come with you because you're afraid you'll get lost on your way there?"

Justin's growl as he storms off to get on the train is enough to propel me forward, I run after him and fling myself at the train just like he does. I manage to pull myself into the car with some help from a tall Candor transfer, thanking him I take a seat against the wall.

"I'm Jeff," The Candor boy says as he sits down beside me.

I pause for a moment, "Gabby," I reply as my second act of defiance against the anti-nickname rules of my old faction. We spend the rest of the ride in silence, all of us worrying what will happen next. It isn't until now that I remember the paper Andrew handed me before the ceremony. I pull the crumpled paper from my pocket:

_Andrew's Hypothesis: Gabriella will choose Dauntless today at her choosing ceremony._

I laugh quietly at my know-it-all brother, but it isn't really the words that stick out to me. It's the small design of three interlocking gears that he drew on the bottom corner; my brother has always doodled when he's nervous. I run my thumb over the small picture before folding the paper and storing it back in my pocket.

Soon the Dauntless-born initiates stand and start getting ready to jump off the train. I watch as Justin turns and finds my eyes, "See you on the other side, princess." With that he is gone, flinging himself out of the train car and onto the roof of the building as the train passes.

Jeff and I are the last two to jump and we jump together, landing in a pile in the gravel covering the roof. I stand slowly, realizing just how close to the edge of the roof I landed.

I join the group of transfers and Dauntless-born initiates on the other side of the roof, all together there are nineteen of us who made it to this point. Only seven of us are transfers: Jeff and two candor girls, myself, an Erudite boy I recognize named Carl, another Erudite girl who's name I believe is Jessica, and an Amity boy.

A man steps up onto the ledge on the far side of the roof, introducing himself as one of the Dauntless leaders, "The member's entrance of our headquarters is several stories below this ledge. The only way in is to jump and only by entering through the member's entrance can you continue initiation."

Justin laughs, "Let the transfers go first, if any of them are brave enough to do it that is."

After a few minutes of silence Jeff and Carl both step up and walk to the edge, solemnly looking back at us before taking turns jumping. Before my brain can tell my legs to stop, I'm standing on the ledge. My fingers find the first button of the blue over shirt, when all the buttons are undone I slide it from my shoulders, some of the dauntless behind me whoop at seeing my in the black shirt undershirt. I let the blue shirt fall and it slowly floats into the hole in the ground below.

I turn to face the crowd, my eyes finding Justin's just as he shouts, "That was you?!"

I laugh, "It was," Then I take a half step backward before echoing his words from earlier, "See you on the other side." With that I let myself fall backward toward the unknown.


	3. Chapter 2

**AN: Hello again everyone! I meant to update on Wednesday, but life has a way of ruining your plans. My Grandmother had a heart attack on Wednesday morning and I have been spending most of my time at the hospital with her. (I still am, but she's asleep for now) That is also the reason that this chapter is a bit shorter than I had planned, I figured a shorter update sooner was better than a longer update later. I should be updating again soon though. Anyway, thank you to my wonderful favoriters, followers, and reviewers, I love you guys. Like I said before, I love hearing from you! And it helps me write knowing someone is waiting for a new chapter. **

**Sphinxed – A lot of things have happened between Erudite and Divergent to mess with his head. Yeah, you read my mind, I'm planning to have some fun with jealous Eric. :)**

**Guest – This seems to be a popular question…**

**Unknown – Thank you again and here's an update.**

**Olivia-Ivy – Thank you, glad you like it!**

**Unfortunately, I still don't own Divergent or Eric.**

**Chapter Two**

**Eric's POV**

I watch from the shadows as the second figure hits the net; the erudite boy I remember is helped down and introduces himself as Carl. Although we come from the same faction I don't know him that well, I didn't know his name until just now, but I'm sure I've seen him talking to Gidget before.

Everyone watches anxiously, waiting to see who will jump next. Rather than another initiate hitting the net with a scream, a flash of blue flutters through the hole and every one leans forward to see an Erudite shirt lying on the edge of the net.

"What the?" Four starts as he looks up toward the ledge above.

Before he can complete his question a flash of black and blue hits the net; the girl lands on her back and lays there for a moment softly laughing to herself. After a moment she seems to remember that another initiate could be falling onto the net at any moment and finally taking note of the hands at the edge of the net she climbs toward them.

Even in the tunnels dim light I recognized her immediately. Her long brown curls are uncharacteristically pulled up into a ponytail, her features slightly older than when I saw her last, but it is definitely her.

"What's your name?" Lauren asks with a smile.

"Gabby," she replies quickly as she begins smoothing out the wrinkles in her shirt.

"Welcome to Dauntless, go stand with the other initiates until everyone is down," Four says in his usual annoying voice.

She steps down from the platform and walks over to the two boys that jumped before her. Once all the initiates are down Four and Lauren start to lead them out of the room. As they pass by her eyes catch mine for a moment, quickly looking away like I am just another face in a crowd of strangers. I can't really blame her for not noticing me; I don't look anything like my old self. Erudite Eric had short hair, mine is grown out. He didn't have eyebrow piercings and a lip ring, or black ink coming up the sides of his neck. I hardly recognize myself sometimes.

When the initiates are almost out of the cavern she freezes dead in her tracks, turning back to search the crowd again, nearly causing the initiate behind her to run into her. Her eyes find mine, shining with realization and she raises an eyebrow. After a moment though a tall Candor boy grabs her wrist and pulls her along and she's gone from view.

An hour later I make my way into the dining room with Max, as always a hush falls over the Dauntless inside the room when they see any of the five of us enter a room. Once the chatter starts up again we find our way to the table where the other three leaders are waiting. As I take my seat I can feel the stares burning into the back of my skull, I turn to find Four sitting a couple tables away with the transfers. Most of them are whispering questions to their instructor and sneaking looks at my table when they can, but she is openly staring right at me with the studious gaze only an Erudite can manage.

"What do you think Eric?" Max asks, bringing me from my staring contest with Gidget and back to the conversation.

I clear my throat, "About? " I ask trying to sound as bored and uninterested as possible.

James, one of the other leaders, laughs and pushes my shoulder, "If you can pull your attention away from the pretty transfer for a moment we have something important to discuss."

"As I was saying, we need to decide who will go to a meeting with Jeanine Matthews next week," Max began more seriously, "I suggested that as a newly appointed leader it would be good training for you to accompany me, not to mention with it being your former faction you're an obvious choice."

I nod my head in agreement, trying to seem like this is new information, but in reality I've have known about this meeting for a while…

_One Year Ago_

_I'm walking down the hallway of Erudite Headquarters toward my father's office; he asked me this morning to check in after school before I head to our apartment. It's an unusual request, but tomorrow is my Choosing Day, so I suppose it isn't a normal afternoon. _

_I find the door that belongs to his office and knock softly. My father's deep voice instructs me to enter from the other side, so I slowly push it open. Sitting in one of the two chairs in front of his desk is my father; his usual seat is being taken up by Jeanine Mathews, leader of the Erudite._

"_Richard, would you give me a moment with your son?" Jeanine asks, but her tone makes it sound more like a demand. My father stands quickly, giving me a nod on his way out. My father doesn't look angry with me, so I must not be in trouble, and the curiosity in his eyes makes me think that he might not know what is going on either._

_She jestures for me to sit in the chair across from her and I quickly comply. "Have I done something wro…" Jeanine cuts me off before I can finish asking my question._

"_You got Dauntless on your aptitude test, am I correct."_

_I nod, and she raises an eyebrow, "Yes ma'am," I amend, _

_She leans forward, resting her elbows on the desk and knitting her fingers together, "I have I job for you, Eric." She pauses, studying me the way an animal studies its prey, "Tomorrow at the choosing ceremony you will choose Dauntless."_

_I open my mouth to reply but she doesn't allow it, "I've been watching you for a while Eric, I think you are the right choice for the job I have in mind. You will go to Dauntless, you will dominate your initiate class by any means necessary, and you will do whatever you have to in order to fit in. There is a position open for a new Dauntless leader, normally it would take some time to reach that status but with an opening you should be able to get your foot in the door by coming in first in initiation."_

_When she pauses I am finally able to ask a question, "Why?"_

_She smiles at me, a smile that sends chills down my spine and makes the hairs on my arm stand up, "I will tell you that if you achieve your first goal." She stands and confidently strides toward the door, she pauses with her hand on the knob, "Oh and Eric, if you fail me, remember that I have the power to hurt anyone you leave behind, family or friends. Do I make myself clear?"_

_I picture my parents, my best friend Andrew, and most of all Gabriella and I know that I can't fail, "Yes, ma'am, crystal clear. "_


	4. Chapter 3

**Hello again everyone! I wanted to start off by thanking you guys for the support, my grandmother is finally out of the hospital. I was planning to finish this chapter yesterday but I spent most of the afternoon/evening curled up on the couch crying like a baby as I finished The Fault in our Stars…**

**I wanted to thank Olivia-Ivy, Unknown, and Guest for reviewing chapter 2. I always love hearing from you guys and you have no idea how overly excited I get when I check and I have a new review (or subscriber or favorite, but especially reviews) **

**PLEASE READ: ok, so I am looking for ideas for Gabby's fear landscape, I have had this story planned out for the most part but I'm drawing a blank for her landscape/phase 2.**

**Sadly, as always, I don't own Eric or the Divergent series.**

**Chapter Three**

**Gabby's POV**

Once Eric finished his conversation with the other leaders he walked confidently over to our table, coming to stand behind Four, who was sitting across from me. His eyes met mine for a second before they moved on to study the other six transfers.

He leaned forward and half whispered into Fours ear, "How long do you give the fat Amity?"

Michael, the boy who had transferred from Amity, looked up for a moment with eyes full of hurt and clearly unaccustomed to insults having been Amity until today. He wasn't exceptionally chubby, but he certainly wasn't skinny either. He had medium length black hair and a round face, he was tall, at least six foot.

Four ignored the comment, pushing back his chair he stood, "For those of you who don't know, this is Eric one of the five leaders of Dauntless, he'll be overseeing your training with me. Everyone up and he'll show you to the dorm."

We followed Eric through a maze of hallways until we reached an open door; inside were four bunk beds with a dresser at the foot of each one to be shared by the two initiates sharing the bunk. Eric held up a hand to call for silence and stop anyone from going in yet, "These will be your living quarters until the end of initiation. Training is between eight and six with a break for lunch, as well as between the three stages of initiation, which Four will explain tomorrow. You can do whatever you like after six within the compound; however you are not permitted to leave without a member. By the time initiation is through we will have chosen which ten initiates can stay," This was met with shock gasps and mumbled argument until Eric raised an eyebrow threateningly, "If you have a problem with this I suggest you leave now. You chose us, now we have to choose you,"

With that he turned and walked away, leaving all of us standing dumbstruck in the hallway. What the hell was that? Eric had never acted like this before, what in the past year could have changed him so drastically?

"What's his problem?" Jeff said coming to lean against the door next to me as I watched Eric walk away.

I shook my head and walked in to the dorm to choose a bed. In the end it was Jeff and I sharing a bunk, me on top bunk and him on the bottom. The other bunk on our side of the room was occupied by Jessica and Carl, my two fellow Erudite transfers. On the other side of the room the two Candor girls, Alisha and Amanda, shared a bunk bed and Michael had one to himself.

Once we were all pretty well settled everyone split up, all the other girls went shopping for new clothes right away and Jeff and Carl went to explore the complex. This left me alone with Michael who had decided to stay and sleep.

After a few minutes I decided that the idea of going to meet the girls at the clothing store was better than sitting in a silent room. As I walked out of the dorm and turned the corner in the direction of the Pit I became acutely aware of just how dark and creepy the halls and tunnels were, especially when you weren't entirely sure where you were going.

As I passed one of the hallways that connected to the one I was walking down a hand grabbed my wrist and pulled me down the hall, the person's other hand quickly clamped over my mouth so I wouldn't scream. I was pulled into a storage closet and then the person whispered in my ear, "It's me, sorry."

I whirled around and slapped Eric on the arm, "Don't ever do that again, you scared me."

He smirked, "It's good to see you too Gidget."

We stared at each other for a moment before I threw my arms around his neck, "Oh god I've missed you, you idiot."

He chuckled and squeezed me back, "Apparently enough to jump onto a moving train."

I pulled back and scoffed, "I might have missed you, but coming here was all my choice. For all I knew your scrawny Erudite butt couldn't even make it onto the train to get here for initiation."

He laughed, "Your faith in me is overwhelming."

I hugged him again, "So Dauntless leader? Pretty impressive for a seventeen year old I must admit."

"Age doesn't matter here, and there was an opening when I arrived," He replied, his tone bored as he leaned back against the door.

"I can't say I'm pleased with your methods though, that macho jerk act you put on around other people," I reply, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Who says it's an act?" He laughed. I simply raised an eyebrow at him in response and he continued, "It was necessary to get the position, I can't say I'm always a fan of it myself."

I smiled, there was the Eric I l knew, I leaned forward and quickly pecked him on the lips, "I better get back out there, don't want people thinking I made it passed initiation just because I was sneaking around with a leader."

He winked and moved so I could leave, "I should be coming into monitor training tomorrow."

With a nod and a smile I walked out and didn't look back. When I got to the pit I found the clothing store and located Jessica, Alisha, and Amanda.

"Glad to see you changed your mind!" Jessica said with a wide smile, we had never been close before but we had known each other through Carl and she was pretty cool. Once I was next to her and the others where far enough away she leaned in and whispered, "And thank god you did because I'm going to lose my mind without someone sane to talk to." As if to prove her point at that moment the other two girls burst into a fit of high pitched giggles.

We shared a look and then joined them in searching the racks. In the end I ended up with a small stack consisting of black jeans, black sweats, a couple tank tops, a tee-shirt, and a comfy pair of black sneakers. I could expand my wardrobe later, but for now I figured I with my limited number of points for the month it would be better to focus on clothes I would need for training. I still had a few left; maybe later in the week I would use them to do something to make myself feel a bit more Dauntless.

We walked back into the dorm to find that Jeff and Carl had already returned and gone to bed. I grabbed my sweats and a tank top, heading to the bathroom to change and brush my teeth. I took my time, when I got back everyone was in bed, I climbed into bed and stared at the ceiling.

It wasn't until now that I had allowed my mind to travel back to my family. I pulled Andrew's note out of my pocket and ran my fingers over the corner of the paper where his gear work doodle would be if I could actually see it in the pitch black room. I stuck it under my pillow and closed my eyes, trying my best to ignore the image of my parent's furious eyes when I chose.

That night I dreamt about the aptitude test, I woke up in a cold sweat, the words of the Abnegation woman who administered my test still running through my head… 

"_Your results were inconclusive; you have equal aptitude for Dauntless and Erudite. When this happens it's called," she paused and leaned in closer, "it's called Divergent. Being Divergent is very dangerous, I can protect you for now and keep them from seeing your true results, but you have to make your decision wisely and be very careful from now on. Erudite and Dauntless are the two most dangerous factions for someone who is divergent." _


	5. Chapter 4

**Hello again everyone! Another chapter, not the most exciting chapter I've ever written but you get a bit of Eriby… Garic… Gabric… whatever you want to call it. I'm bad at coming up with those.**

**TheAlabasterPhoenyx – I am glad you like it! The "bad guy" is always my favorite character because I can see the potential they have to change or at least have a good dramatic backstory. I cried when I read Eric's execution.**

**Zobo64 – I am glad to hear it, it's hard to know if what your writing is only good in your own head sometimes, that's why I love comments.**

**I especially wanted to thank Olivia-Ivy for commenting and PMing me some fear landscape ideas. I still need a couple more so If anyone has an idea for the simulations/landscape, or anything else for that matter, don't be afraid to PM me. (Or comment if you don't have an account)**

**As always Veronica Roth still owns Eric and the trilogy. Review if you have a second, Love you guys!**

**Chapter Four**

**Gabby's POV**

I woke up abruptly the next morning, after a moment I realized it was because Jeff's face was a couple inches from mine and his hand was on my shoulder. I sit up quickly, looking around to find that everyone was either already gone or finishing getting ready.

"You are a hard woman to wake up," Jeff said as he hopped down from his perch, walking over to our dresser to retrieve a bottle of water and a muffin, "You missed breakfast."

"Are you serious?" I climb down from my bunk and grab his wrist to check the time on his watch, "Holy crap it's 7:40." I grab a pair of jeans and a t-shirt from the dresser; I start to pull my tank top off but then stop when I realize that Jeff is still watching me.

He is leaning against the end of our bed, his blond hair is still wet from taking a shower and his tired green eyes give me the impression that he didn't get much sleep last night. He's wearing a tight black t-shirt and jeans, and my curious side wonders for a moment when he went shopping.

"Jeff?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah?" He replies after stifling a yawn, I raise an eyebrow and motion to my clothes, "Oh, oh right." With that he whirls around watches the door while I change.

"Ok, let's go," I say, walking past him and toward the door once I'm ready. As we walk he hands me the muffin and I eat while he talks about what he thinks we will be doing in training today. When we walk into the training room everyone else is already there, including Four and Eric.

"Now that we are all here," Four wastes no time and immediately begins passing out guns, "The first thing you will learn today is how to shoot a gun." As he passes me he presses the cold metal object into my hand, and I find my gaze moving up to meet Eric's for a moment before traveling back to the object in my hand.

When Four is far enough down the line, Jessica leans closer to my ear and whispers, "You and Jeff came in late together," She raises her eyebrows suggestively, nudging me with her elbow.

I try to hold it in but a laugh escapes as a snort and Jeff leans forward and raises his eyebrows suggestively at Jessica, "You jealous?"

Now it is her turn to snort, "Yeah, because my type is smart mouthed Cand-"

She stops whispering abruptly and I look up to see Four standing before us, his expression is more than unpleased, "I am in the middle of teaching you how to use the loaded, lethal weapon in your hand, so if you're not paying attention it must be very important. Care to share with the group?" He says it like a question but everyone in the room knows it is a demand.

None of the three of us make a move to answer so he continues, "I thought as much. Now as I was saying," Four continues to demonstrate the proper technique for holding the gun and firing it. When Four turns to fire at the target Jeff leans against me, resting his arm on my shoulder and yawns. My eyes gravitates to Eric's and I find him glaring at my shoulder as if he is trying to light Jeff's arm on fire with his mind.

For my friend's safety I shrug his arm off, rotating my shoulder like he was hurting it and he looks at me apologetically. I flash him a smile to let him know that it's okay and then turn my attention back to Four. I study the angles he is holding his arms at, the distance between his feet, anything that might help me.

As the seven of us turn to the targets, Four begins talking again as he paces behind us, "Training is divided into three stages: physical preparation, mental preparation, and a final test. Each stage is weighed more heavily than the last; this means that, while it is difficult, it is not impossible to move up the rankings if you do poorly in the physical portion."

At this point Eric takes over, "As I said yesterday, only ten initiates will make it through and become members, this means that four initiates will be eliminated after round one and another five after the final test. Even though we start out training you transfer separately from the Dauntless-born initiates your scores will still be compared with theirs when we make cuts. It could be four of you getting kicked out, four of them, or any other combination."

"Okay, let's get started," the others start firing at the target while I take a moment to picture and mimic Four's stance. I aim at the center of the target and fire; it is then that I realize that watching someone fire a gun is much different than being the one pulling the trigger. I am completely unprepared for the recoil and the force pushes my backward, making the bullet hit the wall about six inches above the target.

I get back into to position to fire again but before I can pull the trigger I feel something nudge my foot, "Your legs aren't far enough apart," Eric breaths as he continues nudging my foot with his until he is satisfied. With that he walks away, as if he had just paused for a moment behind me to watch, and a quick check tells me that his help went unnoticed.

I turn my attention back to the target, I fire again and this time I am expecting the force from the bullet leaving the gun and my footing is better, the bullet hits the very edge of the target. I smile, that is one thing about Erudite that could come in handy wherever you went; the way that you were conditioned to view the world around you, to study everything and store it. It made us, them, fast learners when a new activity was introduced.

I few rounds later and I have finally managed to hit the ring just outside center of the target. I pause and study the others; Michael hasn't even managed to hit the target yet. Amanda has hit the edge of the target but Alisha is still trying to figure out the recoil, after I watch her fire another couple more rounds she manages to nick the edge of the target and the two blondes jump up and down, giggling in celebration. Carl is helping Jessica, after a couple more tries she manages to hit the ring outside the center, she high-fives Carl and they both keep shooting. Jeff is on the end of the row to my left and everyone else is on my right; when I turn to watch him he has just hit the center of the target, he is the first initiate to do so.

When Four and Eric finally release us for lunch I feel as though my arms are made of jello, I let them hang loosely at my sides and I don't fight it when Jeff offers to carry my food to the table. I end up sitting next to Jeff since we are sharing a tray, with Jessica and Carl across from us. After a couple of moments of small talk about training, Jeff and I fall silent, focusing on our food. If my two fellow former Erudite members notice, they don't acknowledge it, they are too focused on each other. For the first time it occurs to me that they have been nearly inseparable since we left the Hub.

I lose interest in their conversation, scanning the dining hall until I find Four and Eric. They are sitting on opposite ends of the same table. The Erudite in me feels the need to study and dissect their relationship. They don't act like friends; butt they do get along alright, they train well together.

I decide to leave dissecting their relationship for another time. I finish my food and pick at Jeff's cake until Four calls for us to follow him. He leads us to a different training room; this one has a chalk board on the far wall with a large circle in the middle. One wall is lined with punching bags, "For the rest of the day you will be working on fighting techniques, tomorrow you start fighting each other, so I suggest you pay attention."

With that Four begins to demonstrate different punches before having us practice them on the bags. If I thought my arms were sore before, I was fairly certain that they would fall off by the time we left the training room.

"After dinner I think we should celebrate our first day of training," Carl announced as we sit down to eat dinner.

Jessica smiles as she picks up her dinner role, "What are you suggesting?"

"I don't know, we all get tattoos or piercings, something that says we are Dauntless now," Carl replies before taking a bite of his chicken. The other three of us nod in agreement and before I know it I am sitting on a stool watching Jeff and Carl get tattoos. Carl is getting the Dauntless symbol on his left upper arm and Jeff is getting a gun on his right shoulder.

"What are you going to do?" Jessica asks as she studies the wall of tattoo ideas.

I think for a moment, "Not a tattoo, not yet anyway, I don't want to jump in to getting something permanently drawn on my skin until I am absolutely sure. I want to pierce my nose, but if we are going to start fighting tomorrow, probably not such a good idea."

"You are going about this like an Erudite," Jessica replies with a laugh, still studying the wall. After a moment she turns to look at me and sighs, "But those are all valid points."

I chuckle and it is then that a younger Dauntless girl, maybe twelve or thirteen, walks by with bright green hair. Jessica and I share a look, "I'll do it if you do," I say with a wide smile.

A couple hours later I am standing before the mirror with chunky bright blue highlights in my brown curls and Jessica has the tips of her black shoulder length hair dyed bright red. I yawn as I turn to her and ask, "Well? What do you think?"

"It suits you," She says with a smile, "I'm headed to bed, you?"

"Go ahead, I'm going to walk around for a bit," With that I head back out into the main part of the pit and eventually find myself leaning on the railing around the chasm, watching the water rush beneath my feet.

I look up just in time to see Eric and a couple other leaders walk by, he doesn't look at me at first, but when he does he excuses himself and heads toward me. He stops a couple feet away since we are in public and people are walking by fairly regularly.

"Wow," He says after a moment of staring, "You really decided to jump into the whole Dauntless thing."

I chuckle, "You're one to talk," I reply poking him in the eyebrow when I am sure no one is paying attention.

"Touché," He replies with a smirk, and then his expression becomes more stern, "Why have you been hanging out with that Candor boy so much."

I laugh, and since this has attracted a bit of unwanted attention I lower my voice, "Are you jealous Eric?"

He rolls his eyes, "You should get to bed, tomorrow is going to be a rough day."

I groan, I had almost forgotten about fighting tomorrow, "Don't suppose you can make sure I get an easy match?" He just smiles at me, "Yeah I didn't think so." I use a short lull in foot traffic to quickly peck him on the cheek, "Goodnight Eric."

"Goodnight Gidget."


	6. Chapter 5

**Hello again! I have been super inspired to write lately; in the last 48 hrs I finished chapter 4, wrote this chapter, and I'm nearly done with chapter 6. Probably because of all the great reviews from you guys! **

**TheAlabasterPhoenyx**** – You have no idea how happy your review made me. It is something that I worry about constantly, wondering if my OCs are too Mary Sue-ish. I like the sarcastic, arrogant Eric and trying to keep that, while writing him during a time when he was less messed up, is hard.**

**Kitty**** – I have heard of it, it's on my list of things to read I just haven't gotten around to it yet. The Osiris Project has my full attention at the moment. I'm glad you like my story so far!**

**Laura013**** – Again, you have no idea how happy your review made me, and I'm glad you like my story. That is the reason I started this fic, because it was so hard to find a good Eric story. As for your question, her brother isn't Tris and Caleb's father. To be honest, I didn't even make the connection myself that I had named her brother Andrew and that Andrew Prior was originally Erudite until I had posted the first two chapters. I have just always really liked the name Andrew.**

**As always, leave me a review and I'll love you forever! PM me if you have a fear landscape idea because I am driving myself crazy trying to think of ones that aren't overused. Love you guys!**

**Unfortunately, I still don't own Eric or Divergent. This really shouldn't surprise anyone because if I did Insurgent would have gone much differently.**

**Chapter Five**

**Eric's POV**

As I walk into the training room the next morning I nearly spit the mouthful of coffee I had just taken into Four's face. What the heck was he thinking? I scan the chalkboard again to make sure I am reading it correctly.

Jeff Vs. Jessica

Carl Vs. Amanda

Michael Vs. Gabby

The spot next to Alisha's name is blank since there are an odd number of transfers. I open my mouth to yell at Four for putting my... Gabby against the biggest guy in the group, but quickly clamp it shut when I realize that there isn't a rational explanation for why this would upset me without revealing our relationship.

"Oh, I didn't hear you come in Eric," Four says from his perch on a chair near the board, writing notes about yesterday most likely.

I ignore him, running through yesterday in my head. Michael was absolutely horrible with a gun but in the afternoon, when they worked on fighting technique, I noticed he had a mean swing. He's big too, but that might be to Gabby's advantage since her smaller size makes her faster.

"Eric?" I turn to find Four staring at me, "You alright?" It isn't until now that I realize that I haven't just been thinking silently to myself, but I have indeed been standing in the ring mumbling to myself.

Before I have a chance to come up with a reason for my odd behavior the door opens again and the initiates stumble in. With her new hair it takes my eyes even less time to find her in a crowd. She sees me and smiles before her eyes travel to the board. She finds her name and turns back to me, clearly alarmed; I can almost hear her internal panic attack.

"As you can see, there are an uneven number of you, so Alisha won't be fighting today," I begin, Alisha smiles triumphantly and takes a spot at the edge of the circle. Now I have two reasons to insist on arranging the rankings tomorrow; I want that smug smile wiped off her face when she has done nothing to earn it. I shake off the thought and continue, "First up: Jeff and Jessica."

The two move to the center, circling each other uncomfortably, neither one wanting to be the first to hit their friend. It is finally Jeff who swings first, hitting Jessica in the stomach; she stumbles backward and doubles over for a moment. I watch Gabby grab the arm of the boy next to her as he growls, "I'll kill him, let me kill him Gabby."

"You can't kill Jeff for punching her during a training fight Carl, besides if you kill him that leaves you to hang out with just us two girls all the time," This calms him down and I turn my attention back to the fight.

Jessica manages to get a couple good hits in, but it doesn't take long before she loses and Gabby rushes to her side, helping her out of the ring. Jeff follows, not seeming to really enjoy his victory.

The second fight is between Carl and Amanda. It only takes a couple minutes and is so predictable it's nearly boring.

Then it is time for her fight; part of me hopes that the huge boy still has enough Amity in him to go easy on her, but as soon as they get in the ring I know it won't happen that way. He looks her up and down, smiling like he is completely sure that he has his first fight won.

Just as they are about to start, the training room door opens and in walks Max. He comes to stand between Four and I, "Thought I'd stop in and see how your first initiate class was going." He pauses, sizing up Gabby and Michael, "Do you think this is a leisure activity? Fight each other!"

This isn't good. I could have made something up before but I definitely can't step in if things get out of hand with Max here. Michael lunges forward and throws the first punch, Gabby sees it coming and tries to dodge but she isn't fast enough. She stumbles backward and struggles for a moment to regain her balance, she does not recover fast enough to avoid getting hit again.

This time she does fall, she lays there for a second and a part of me hopes that maybe she will stay down. It will make her look weak and be horrible for her ranking, but I can't keep watching this. When she pulls herself up, I find myself growling.

Michael lunges for her, but this time she's ready, she dodges and hits him in the stomach. He stumbles backward and she follows connecting her knee with his ribs. He stumbles back again, but this time he pushes through the pain and launches himself at her, grabbing her t-shirt to hold her still while he aims a right hook at the side of her head. Her right palm comes up and quickly pushes back on his nose as forcefully as she can, the sickening cracking sound echoes through the room.

He holds his nose for a moment before his brown eyes fill with rage and he springs at her again. He hits her hard in the head and she falls, hitting her head on the ground again when she lands. For a second she doesn't move, and I have to chew on my cuticle to keep from rushing to her side.

The Candor boy does run to her side, shaking her softly and calling her name. After a moment she makes a noise and I can breathe again. Four circles Michael's name and dismisses the initiates for lunch, with the exception of Michael, who has to go to the infirmary to get his nose set, and Gabby.

Jeff helps Gabby up and I finally step forward, "Get to lunch I'll take her to get her head looked at," I say trying to sound as much like it will inconvenience me as possible.

"Let him take her, I need to talk to you," Max says from behind me.

Gabby starts to walk out of the room and stumbles; she grabs tightly onto Jeff's arm for support and mumbles something about the room spinning. Once everyone has left to get lunch Max turns to me, "I spoke with Jeanine this morning and she asked me to remind you to keep an eye out for any divergent while you train." He pauses for a moment, studying the chalkboard, "There are already a couple initiates in particular she is keeping an eye on."

When the other initiates are back in the training room and Four has them working on their gunmanship again I leave, telling my co-trainer I have to go work on something for Max. Once I'm out of the room I head straight for the infirmary, where a middle aged Dauntless nurse leads me to a small treatment room. I go in, shutting the door behind me. Gabby is sitting up, a cup of water held loosely in her hand while she stares blankly at the wall.

She doesn't seem to notice me at first but when I reach the side of her bed she finally turns and her big blue eyes meet mine, "Hey."

"Hey," I push one of the newly died blue curls behind her ear, "I can't stay for long without people wondering, what did the doctor say?"

"Grade 3 concussion based on the brief loss of consciousness, I have to spend the night here for observation," She pauses, a small smile finding her lips, "But I should live."

"At least take comfort in the fact that you broke that idiot's nose," She laughs softly and then brings a hand up to the side of her head, wincing in pain. I growl, covering her hand with my own, "He better hope I don't find him alone in a dark hallway."

Her smile disappears completely, "Don't. He was just doing what he had to; I'm not taking it personally so neither should you. Besides, I prefer knowing he didn't go easy on me just because I'm a girl."

"I suppose," I grumble. Just then I hear footsteps approaching, remove my hand and take a large step back just as the door opens to reveal her doctor.

"Ah, Eric, come to check on your trainee?" He asks glancing at her chart before he continues, "She'll be fine, although I think she should stay the night, but I don't see why she can't get back to training tomorrow. She'll just need to learn to protect her head better when she fights." Spoken like a true Dauntless.

"Good," I turn my attention back to Gidget, "I'll expect you at training, eight o'clock sharp." I pause at the door, my hand on the knob, "Oh and don't think you can use being in here as an excuse for being late."

She smirks, "I wouldn't dream of it sir."


	7. Chapter 6

**Hello again! I know I have been updating a lot recently, I have been really sick and in the hospital a bit so I have had plenty of time to write. As always leave me a review and I'll love you forever, send me a PM if you have fear landscape ideas. Thank you ****Ryebread15 ****for reviewing chapter 5, and yeah I like to think that he has a heart buried under the sarcasm, arrogance, and mask of cruelty. (Well at least in the universe of my story) Love you guys!**

**Unfortunately, no one has taken pity on poor unwell me and forked over the rights to Eric and Divergent, those are still Veronica's.**

**Chapter Six**

**Gabby's POV**

"Gabby, wake up Gabby," My eyes snap open and I find Jessica standing over me, a wide smile on her face, "Jeff was right, you are almost impossible to wake up."

She sets a pile of my clothes on the bedside table and then plops down on the edge of the bed. I sit up and immediately a sharp pain radiates through my head and I hate myself for the pathetic whimper I can't keep in.

Jessica studies me for a second, a look of pity etched in her features, but then she seems to realize that sympathy isn't what I need at the moment, "You better hurry and change unless you don't mind changing with an audience, the boys went to get us food but that won't take too long."

I climb out of bed, trying my best to ignore my discomfort and focus on getting through training for the day. Just as I finish getting ready, the boys walk in with food and we eat while I wait for the doctor to come in and look at me one last time.

As we walk to the training room the others are talking about who their opponents might be. Part of me hopes I don't have to fight today, but Eric couldn't arrange that without making it obvious that we are together, and I can't see Four giving me special treatment.

When we walk in I immediately scan the board for my name:

Gabby Vs. Alisha

Amanda Vs. Jessica

Carl Vs. Jeff

Much to my annoyance the spot next to Michael's name is blank, he lands me in the hospital overnight and he gets the day off. Well, no one ever said life was fair. At least I have the first fight so I can get it over with.

Eric's eyes find mine and I think I see him flinch, I realize how bad I must look. Once everyone has filed in Alisha and I move to the ring. She is smaller than I am, probably just over five foot, and very scrawny. Her eyes find mine and I see that they are full of panic. For a second I know that I can win this easily and I almost feel sorry for her, almost. This must be how Michael felt yesterday.

"I don't have all day ladies," Eric shouts behind me, I roll my eyes and launch myself at the blonde. I hit her in the jaw and she stumbles backward rubbing her jaw. She hits back but not hard enough to really do much damage and I am pretty sure she hurt her own wrist worse than she did me.

I few hits later and she's on the ground, and once she is down she doesn't try to get up until Eric circles my name. It was an easy fight, but after yesterday it's still enough to wear me out. I move to stand between Jeff and Carl, holding onto Jeff's arm to keep myself upright even though I can feel Eric's gaze burning a hole in my hand.

The rest of the morning is sort of a blur; I fight to pay attention to the other matches through the fog and pain that fill my head. Jessica wins her match, but Alisha does much better today than she did during her first fight. She manages to get a couple good hits in, and I'm pretty sure that Jess will have a black eye to match mine tomorrow, but in the end she still loses.

Carl and Jeff fight last; it is by far the most equally matched fight of the day. I am sure they will both be sore and bruised tomorrow, but in the end it is Carl who wins.

After fighting is over we head to lunch, laughing as we tell stories and eat. It occurs to me about halfway through lunch that this is the first time we have all been comfortable enough to talk about our old lives. "Wait, so what happened to the rest of the chicken?" I ask before taking a bight of my sandwich.

"I don't know," Jeff laughs, "I ran home as fast as I could and hid in my room."

"So you got away with it?" Carl chuckles, his arm resting nonchalantly on the back of Jessica's chair.

Jeff starts laughing, "No, you can't get away with anything in Candor. Even if you cover all your bases, hide the evidence, everyone can still tell if you're lying about it."

We keep talking and laughing until Four comes up to our table, leading us back to the training room with the punching bags to practice more fighting technique. We work the punching bags until we are dismissed for the day, over all it's pretty uneventful with the exception of the announcement that we are going to visit the fence tomorrow.

After dinner I'm so exhausted from the day of training combined with the previous day's injuries that I decide to go back to the dorm and go to bed early. I change into the most comfortable clothes I have and climb into bed. I close my eyes and now in the dark silent room the only thing my brain has to focus on is the horrible throbbing pain in my head. I lay there for half an hour, trying to force myself to go to sleep, but it's no use.

I finally climb out of bed and decide to head to the infirmary to see if I can score some pain killers so I can get some sleep. I am halfway there when I round a particularly dark corner and find myself face to chest with Eric. I take a step back and smile at him apologetically.

"Were you in bed already?" He asks, petting down a lock of hair down that I assume is sticking out at an odd angle from tossing and turning. He checks his watch, "It's only 7:30, what are you eighty?"

I slap his arm, "I'm recovering from a concussion, I have an excuse. I have been trying to fall asleep for a while now, but with this pounding in my head I can't seem to." I lean against the wall and stifle a yawn, "I was headed to the infirmary to see if I could get something for the pain so I can sleep."

"I've got something, follow me," He replies simply. I follow him through a series of empty corridors; it's still early so most people are in the pit still. We arrive at a door that looks like all the others in the hall; he opens it to reveal a small apartment. It has a simple kitchen, a bedroom, bathroom, and a living room. I hear myself make a curios noise and he looks at me questioningly, "It's just not what I expected for a faction leader," I reply to his unasked question.

He chuckles, shutting the door behind us, "It works for me, I'm hardly ever home anyway." I nod and he sets his keys down on the coffee table, "Sit, I'll get you a glass of water and the pills."

I sit, pulling my legs under me to make myself comfortable. I turn my body so I can rest my head on the back of the couch just before Eric returns with a small glass and two green pills. "Thank you," I say with a smile, taking the two pills and quickly finishing the water.

Eric takes my glass and refills it, "Here, I'm going to change. I'll be right back."

I sit there in the almost silent apartment, listening to the soft ticking of the clock, and suddenly my eyelids feel heavy. I can feel the darkness calling to me and I close my eyes, what will it hurt if I fall asleep for a couple minutes?

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

My eyes flutter open and I stretch out as long as I can make myself. I haven't slept that well since a couple nights before the aptitude test. I am about to close my eyes and try to get a few more minutes before Jeff forces me out of bed, when I realize two things. First, that this bed is far more comfortable than my bunk, and second, that the ceiling in much farther away than usual.

I sit up quickly, finding myself alone in a large bed. The sheets are ruffled on the other side, so someone else was clearly asleep next to me. As I try to force my sleep logged brain to remember how I ended up here, Eric walks in. His hair is wet from taking a shower and he has on a pair of black jeans, no shirt. It's the first full view of his tattoos I have gotten and I find myself studying the designs I had previously only seen the tops of.

"You're finally up," He says simply. He walks over to his dresser and pulls out a t-shirt, "I was about to wake you up, you have about an hour and a half before you need to be at the train for the trip today."

That's right. I came to his apartment last night, but I still don't remember coming into his room, "I fell asleep on the couch."

"Yes," He replies, momentarily stopping the task of putting his shirt on, studying me cautiously, "And I carried you in here."

I raise an eyebrow at him skeptically, "Why didn't you wake me up? The others are going to wonder where I've been all night."

"I tried! You try waking you up sometime!" He replies incredulously, "Besides If you go back now, most of them should still be sleeping." I climb out of bed and start to leave but he blocks my path with his arm. "Don't lie, you know you liked sleeping here," He adds with a smug smirk, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

I laugh before leaning forward to peck him on the lips, but he catches me off guard by quickly turning us around and pinning me to the wall. His lips meet mine and quickly ask for entrance, my hands connect behind his neck and my lips part to let him in. Finally, I pull back, gasping for air, "I really should go."

He nods, "Yeah, you should," But I can't seem to make my feet move away. Finally I give up trying to leave for the moment, pulling his face back to mine.


	8. Chapter 7

**Hello again my lovely readers! So I am still horribly ill, which means I have been spending a lot of time alone. So this means I have been writing like crazy, however, it also means I'm lonely, which is making me slowly lose my hold on the wall that separates sanity from insanity. Anyway, thank you to my lone reviewer of last chapter, ****Olivia-Ivy****, I'm glad you liked the Eric x Gabby last chapter. As always review and I'll love you forever! No, I still haven't acquired a certain Dauntless with a bunch of facial piercings or the rights to Divergent. Let me know what you think of the chapter!**

**Chapter Seven**

**Gabby's POV**

When I finally make it back to the dorm everyone is nearly finished getting ready. Jeff is sitting on the edge of his bed putting his shoes on, "When did you get up this morning?"

I walk over to our dresser and start pulling clothes out, "Like an hour ago." Jeff studies me in the way that only a Candor can, "I went to get pain killers last night and I was waiting for them to kick in and I fell asleep."

He continues to study me skeptically for a moment, "So you slept at the infirmary again?" I nod, hoping I am a better liar if I don't actually talk. I can tell he isn't convinced, but he stills drops it and going back to tying his shoes.

"I am running late, will you go get me some food while I take shower?" He complies, although he complains about how I never get my own food until we reach the roof. As we wait for the train I scan the crowd, but Eric isn't there, just Four and the seven of us transfers.

Once we have all piled in to one of the train cars we settle in for the ride, I end up squished in the corner with Jessica. "Okay, where were you last night? And none of that crap you fed Jeff this morning," Jessica says just loud enough that only I can hear her above the wind rushing by the moving car.

"I told you guys this morning, I went to get pain kill…," I start but Jess cuts me off and stares me down.

"I may not have been Candor, but I'm not stupid Gabby."

I think for a minute and then growl, "If I tell you something, you have to promise me that you don't breathe a word of it, to anyone." I pause before adding, "That includes Carl and Jeff."

She nods, "Yeah, yeah, get on with it woman."

"I fell asleep at," I pause weighing whether it is in my best interests to tell her the whole truth, "a guy's apartment."

She smirks and wiggles her eyebrows, "Knew it. Who? I never see you with guys other than Jeff and Carl," She pauses for a moment to think, "One night stand?"

I gasp dramatically, "Who do you think I am, Jess?" I bat my eyelashes at her innocently and she laughs. I laugh too, before continuing more seriously, "I never even said I had sex with him, all we did was sleep."

She studies me for a moment, "Ok, but you still haven't answered my question, who?"

I am about to answer when the train breaks and we all tumble forward, Four turns to us from the doorway, "Everybody out!"

xxxxxxxxxxxx

On the way back to headquarters I find myself hanging partially out the door, watching the city go by. I have managed to avoid Jessica enough all day that I haven't had to answer her. Maybe she will forget about my mystery man until after initiation.

I look up just as we pass Erudite headquarters, a wave of homesickness hits me like I've been stabbed in the heart. I have managed to keep myself distracted enough to not think much about home, but for the first time since the day of the choosing ceremony I find myself wondering what my parents and Andrew are doing. Are they missing me? Visiting day is only four days away now, will they come?

I have been trying to avoid thinking about home as much as I can. When I transferred I thought that it meant that I left everything about my old life and my family behind, I needed to forget about my past and focus on my new life. Faction before blood; but I was wrong.

Part of me will always be Erudite; I still think like one sometimes, sixteen years of mental conditioning isn't that easily undone. More importantly my family will always be a part of me. I have my father's eyes, my mother's nose and chin, and Andrew's gestures. It doesn't matter if I left my family, or how long I'm gone, they will always be a part of me.

I realize now that you can put the past behind you, but you should never forget. Your actions and experiences before this moment, good or bad, are what make you who you are. Inspiration hits me and I make a decision about how to spend my evening.

As soon as we get back to headquarters Four announces that he is letting us go early. I grab Jessica's arm and drag her to the tattoo parlor, ignoring her confused questions. Inside an Asian woman with grey streaks in her black hair meets us at the door. The tattoo on her neck catches my eye, but I need to focus on the task at hand before I lose my nerve. "I'm here to get a tattoo, right here," I respond, indicating the spot between my shoulder blades.

The woman chuckles, "Well that's what I do, what do you want?"

A little while later I am holding a hand mirror so I can study my back in the full length mirror behind me. The eye representing Erudite stairs back at me and I smile, remembering how Andrew used to yell at me for being illogical when I was a child and insisted that the eyes around the complex followed me when I walked by.

Tori, the tattoo artist, finishes a smaller version of the symbol on Jessica's shoulder and we decide to go find the guys. We see them on the other side of the pit and start toward them, but when we are still a ways away Jess grabs my arm and stops me, "I'm letting it go for now," She whispers, "But don't think I forgot about my question from this morning." Damn

xxxxxxxxxxx

The next evening I'm standing next to the chasm, holding a cold glass of water to my freshly bruised jaw. I fought Jeff today, he went easy on me, but I still ended up losing.

"What are you doing, princess? Contemplating how useless this is when you're just going to end up factionless in a day or two?"

I turn to find Justin behind me, sporting a black eye, busted lip, and a bandage on the side of his neck covering a fresh tattoo. I take a sip of my water before replying, "Yes, but it comforts me to know you'll be coming along."

Justin laughs and slaps me on the back, his palm landing on the still tender location of my tattoo. I flinch and Justin's eyes widen, "Bruise or tattoo?" He asks trying to pull my t-shirt away so he can look at my back. I whirl around to elbow him in the side but he catches my arm, "Oh, calm down princess."

I shake my arm loose and start to walk away, "Oh come on, you know I was only joking Gabby." He catches up to me and throws an arm over my shoulder, "This is what we do. We banter, I call you a weak princess, and you call me an idiot, or something like that. We keep this charade up until you realize that you're secretly in love with me."

I can't help it, I laugh. After a moment I turn to face him, my face suddenly serious, "Your right Justin." He freezes and I lean in closer until my lips are practically touching his ear, "You are an idiot." With that I walk away.

When I make it back to my dorm I change and climb into my bunk. When my head hits the pillow I hear the sound of crinkling paper, I reach inside the pillowcase and pull out a crumpled note. The lights are still on so I scan the paper quickly before slipping out of the room as quietly as possible.

When I get to the net at the bottom of the member's entrance the room is empty and silent, the opposite of a few days ago. I check my watch, the note said to be here at 11:00, it's only 10:45 so I decide to climb up and lay in the net until he comes. As I stare up through the hole above my head I feel something cold and wet hit my nose. A couple seconds later another rain drop lands just above my eye.

I smile and close my eyes; I've always loved the rain. When I was a child, I used to climb out of my bedroom window; there was a small ledge that I could sidle across to the fire escape off of our living room. Sometimes, I would sneak up to the roof when it rained, lay on the gravel, and stare up at the starless night sky…

_I lay with my eyes closed, small rocks digging into my back and tiny prickles of pain radiating through me with every freezing late autumn raindrop that hits my exposed flesh. I am three stories away, safely on the roof of our apartment building and the rational part of me knows I am too far away to still be able to hear them, but every few minutes I swear I can still hear my parents screaming at each other. _

_I hear the gravel crunch as someone walks toward me, but I don't need to open my eyes to know who it is, "What are you doing out here?" I ask as I hear him lay down next to me. _

"_I…" Eric pauses, shifting back and forth, as if he is actually going to be able to get more comfortable, "I live right above you, I could hear them arguing." He pauses, bumping me as he tucks an arm under his head, "And it's raining, I knew you'd come her to think." _

"_I didn't hear you come up the fire escape," I observe, trying to pull the attention from myself, and my parent's marital problems. _

"_How do you stand this?" He asks, ignoring my question and moving his other hand up to shield his face. After a moment he sighs, "No I came up the normal way, my dad's still at the office and you know how deeply my mom sleeps." _

_I chuckle, "A bold move, sneaking out through the front door, turning fifteen has really changed you." _

"_Well, you know me, I'm a bad boy," He replies and I can hear the smile in his voice, "Besides, I'm practically an adult now, not a little boy they can tell what to do. I'm thinking of growing a beard." _

_I laugh, harder than his attempt to make me feel better deserves, but when I'm around my sarcastic idiot of a best friend I can forget that my dad is probably downstairs throwing a bag together and that he will spend the next few nights at his office instead of coming home. _

_My parents love each other; I can see it in the way they look at each other, the admiration in my mother's eyes when my father is excited about new research he is working on. However, my father's success in recent years has meant that our leader Jeanine Mathews needs him more and more. He is hardly home at all anymore, and I have watched this drive a sizable wedge into my parents' marriage. _

_That is part of the reason why I know I can't stay. I want to find someone I love and have a family, without my children feeling like they are a burden, getting in the way of my ability to be successful. Or without having to have a marriage based on brief conversations at the breakfast table before heading off to the lab. _

"_Are you going to be ok, Gidget?" Eric asks, I nearly forgot he was still here for a moment. _

_Opening my eyes for the first time since he joined me, I turn my head to look at him and find him staring back at me. I nod and we lay there for a moment, our faces inches apart, until suddenly he springs to his feet, "Good, I'm sick of the stupid rain." With that he is gone._

That was the last full conversation I had with him until the morning of his choosing day. I couldn't understand why he had avoided me like I was a diseased freak that whole year, but now it made sense I guess. I am pulled out of my thoughts by the sound of footsteps on the stone floor. I feel the net move as he pulls himself up, positioning himself so we are laying in opposite directions with our heads next to each other.

"I should have guessed you would climb up here when it started raining," He starts, wiggling to make himself more comfortable.

I smile, "That was just a happy coincidence. You have to admit this net is better than gravel though."

We lay there in silence for a moment. I shouldn't feel awkward, but I haven't seen him since yesterday morning, and I hate feeling like a stupid clueless teenage girl, "Eric?"

"Yeah, Gidget?"

I turn to face him, "Why did you want me to meet you here?"

He doesn't turn his head but keeps staring at a spot along the edge of the hole, "What? A guy can't steal a few minutes to see his girlfriend?" As soon as the words leave his mouth he tenses up and I can see the gears turning as he tries to come up with a way to twist his exclamation into a sarcastic joke.

I quickly sit up, repositioning myself so I can kiss him, effectively shutting him up and telling him he that I am pleased with the tittle. When I finally pull back, I can't stop the smile that takes over my entire face; I wouldn't want to stop it even if I could.

He coughs after a second and sits up, "As much as I'd like to continue this now, I have to go meet Four." I follow him to the edge and let him help me down, "I should have let you get some sleep while you could, I guess I'm selfish for wanting to spend a little time with you. I guess we know why I didn't pick Abnegation"

I check my watch, it's only 11:30, "I have plenty of time to sleep," He smirks before turning to leave the room, "Eric, why don't I have time to sleep?" I hear him chuckle but he keeps walking.

I get my answer half an hour later, when the doors to the dorm fly open and I am blinded by the beam of a flashlight shining on my face. "Wake up!" I hear Four yell, I sit up to find the room full of Dauntless.

My eyes find Eric's and he smirks back at me before shouting, "Time for another field trip transfers."

**It's finally time for capture the flag people! Sorry, I'll leave now… *slowly backs into the shadows***


	9. Chapter 8

**Hello again my beautiful readers! Ok, so I hope you all like what I did with capture the flag. Not going to lie, this went a lot differently than I had planned it originally. It also took me a bit because I wanted to do something different so I researched other attractions on Navy Pier. Anyway, I'm STILL sick! (And I'm watching my brother's cat while he is on vacation and she hates me. Seriously if I stop updating, know that she smothered me in my sleep)**

**Thank you to my lovely reviewers from last chapter:**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – Thank you, as always for reviewing and I hope you like what I ended up doing with this chapter.**

**Guest ****– Thank you for reading; and I completely feel your pain with the lack of ongoing Eric fics, which is why I decided to write my own. Hope you keep reading!**

**Still don't own Eric, Four, or Divergent.**

**Chapter Eight**

**Eric's POV**

I glance at my watch; as soon as the transfers get here we'll be ready to go. I pause, looking down the tracks for the ring of light announcing the approaching train. I can hear the Dauntless-born initiates chattering excitedly behind me, joking about who will win tonight's game and shoving each other playfully.

The transfers catch up to our group, quickly being issued paintball guns and ammo by one of the older Dauntless. I hear soft footsteps approach and stop a couple feet behind me, "Now can you tell me what we are doing out here this late?" Gabby asks softly. I stay looking for the train to avoid making it obvious that we are talking.

"You'll see," I reply, before turning to the group and shouting, "How much longer Four?"

He grumbles something under his breath about schedules before announcing that the train will be here any moment. Just as he finishes the train's headlamp comes into view, "Let's go!" A shout goes up among the Dauntless and as soon as the train is close enough everyone piles in.

Four and I take our places at the front of the group, with the trainees directly in front of us and the other members who came along in the back. "Eric and I will be dividing you into two teams with us as your captains," Four starts.

I clear my throat and continue where he left off, "Every year an important part of initiation is capture the flag. The Dauntless take this rite very seriously, and I suggest you do as well." I pause for a moment, my eyes meeting Gabby's, "We can start by dividing up the transfers. You first Four," I finish as I turn my attention back to my competition.

He pauses for a moment, before slumping against the wall behind us and casually calling, "Jeff." This doesn't surprise me; Jeff is the best with a gun.

"Gabby," I call quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly, but Four doesn't seem to notice as he calls the next name.

"Jessica."

"Carl."

"Amanda."

"Michael."

"That leaves Alisha with me, "Four notes as he micks at his fingernail, "Now for the Dauntless-born initiates." After we have finished dividing up the remaining initiates and the members, who chose to come along for one reason or another, Four turns to me again, "Your team can get off second."

I laugh, "I don't need any favors from you," I pause, dropping the volume of my voice, "I don't intend to lose to you again this year."

"No one intends to lose," He replies casually.

I scoff at his suggestion that he can beat me two years in a row, "We'll get off first." A few minutes later it's time to jump, "My team, let's go."

I land on my feet and start walking toward Navy Pier without waiting for the others to get off. After a moment I can hear the footsteps of the rest of my team hurrying to catch up, once we have walked far enough I turn to face them but continue walking backward, "In a few moments the other team will be getting off the train and finding a place to hide their flag."

"Where are we hiding ours?" Justin asks as he catches up to me. Sometimes I wonder if he realizes how much I want to hurt him now that I'm a leader and not the scrawny Erudite boy he picked on in school. I don't think he does or he would keep his distance.

Ashley, one of the Dauntless-born initiates, speaks up from the back of the group, "I overheard Zeke telling Uri that the winning team hid it at the carousel last year."

I sigh dramatically and pinch the bridge of my nose, "Yes, and if I were Four that would be the first place I would look."

I turn back to the front and keep walking, listening to the group behind me bicker about where to go. If I were Four, where would I not think to look? I am so absorbed in my thoughts that I almost don't notice Gabby catch up and fall into step beside me, "Are there any rules about where we can and can't hide it?" She asks softly.

I chuckle, it's very Erudite of her to want all the information she can get before she offers an idea, "It can't be inside a building, but other than that, this is Dauntless anywhere else is fair game."

She considers this for a moment, just as we are passing the Ferris wheel she turns to Carl, who has just caught up with us, "Do you remember a couple of years ago, when a big group of us snuck out of Erudite HQ and came here? We went through that maze building to the roof to watch the meteor shower."

He stops and smiles, "Yes, Paul had to come earlier in the day and mark the way to the roof or we never would have found our way through the building in time."

Gabby smiles back, "Do you remember the way?" Carl nods in response and she turns back to me, "If we hide the flag on the roof where they can see it and then lure them into the maze we can pick them off."

I smirk before turning to the group, "Alright people, we have a plan!"

**Gabby's POV**

I am patrolling the area inside the maze, my gun slung loosely over my shoulder as I wait for any sign that the other team is coming. We sent a couple of Dauntless-born scouts out to look for the other team and their flag. Michael is positioned outside with the all-important job of making sure that Four's team find us, the still overly trusting Amity thinks he's guarding the door, but I know Eric well enough to know that he is little more than a sacrifice to lure them in. The flag is positioned on the edge of the roof so that the other team can see it easily, but far enough out of reach that the only way to get to it is to go through the building. Carl is on the roof with the flag to make sure that someone sees the other team coming.

The rest of our team is spread out throughout the large building's different chambers. There are different sections of the maze, there is a room with black walls covered in splattered glow-in-the-dark paint, a section where the walls are made out of mirrors, and a section where the floors used to move and is divided into noisy sections.

Although the building is pitch black, I ended up just outside the room of mirrors, so the beam of my flashlight is dancing around the room in the mirrors reflections. I am focusing on stepping around the pieces of a broken mirror when I feel a hand grip my wrist that is holding my light. I end up dropping the device and it rolls across the room, the beam shining away from me. The light is reflected back at me just enough that I can see the silhouette of a man looming before me.

I resist the urge to scream and use my free arm to smack at his chest, I am trying to shake my arm free when he leans forward and presses his lips to mine. I gasp in shock and put my arm to his chest to push him away, but I freeze when I realize that the man has a lip ring in the exact same spot as Eric.

I pull back just enough to whisper, "I am going to kill you for this later."

Eric lets go of my wrist and laughs, "Rule number one, never let your guard down. Next time it might not be someone with such noble intentions."

I scoff, leaning back against the nearest mirrored wall and away from my boyfriend, "Noble intentions?"

"Well I am your instructor," He replies innocently, "I needed to test your reflexes."

I roll my eyes and lean in to kiss him again, "You are so full of crap." He chuckles against my lips and I wrap one arm around the back of his neck to pull him closer. After a moment I lean back and whisper, "Did you hear something?" He shakes his head no and I am about to press my lips to his again when I am blinded by the beam of a flashlight.

"Gabby?" I hear Carl call. I turn to look at him but the light hurts my eyes so I move my hand up to block them. Eric tenses and I can only imagine what his face looks like at the moment. Carl gasps, "Oh! I-I didn't see anything, I swear."

I can't help it, I laugh. Eric turns to me and gives me a look before turning back to Carl very suddenly, "Wait, why aren't you on the roof?"

"Oh, right!" Carl snaps out of his state of shock, "I-They are almost here, they should be to the door about now."

We stand there for a moment before Eric grabs his gun, which I just noticed was leaning against the wall a couple feet away, "Let's go people."

Carl runs off to warn the others and I scurry over to get my dropped flashlight, shutting it off, "Where do you want me?" I whisper to Eric.

"With me," he says and we sink back into the room of mirrors. I tuck myself into the shadows and wait, but it doesn't take long before I see Jeff and Four walk around the corner. Jeff has a flashlight, the beam of light bounces around the room. I notice Eric sneaking around the corner, but unfortunately so does Four. Eric and Four both manage to fire at the same time, Four hits Eric in the chest with an explosion of bright blue but manages to step to the side so that the bright yellow paint from Eric's gun splatters across Jeff's side.

Four smirks triumphantly and opens his mouth to say something, but I don't give him a chance. I pull the trigger and a loud popping noise fills the room as bright green paint splatters across his back. I laugh, "Ok, this is fun."

Four turns around a look of shock still on his face just as Carl darts back into the room, "Milo and Orin are back. They got the other teams flag," He turns to me a huge smile on his face, "Our plan worked!" I take a step forward to high-five Carl, when I hear another pop and he freezes mid-step. After a moment he whirls around and I see red paint coating his back, "The game is over Jessica!" He yells to the shadows.

I hear Jess laugh and she steps out of the shadows, her paintball gun still aimed in her hands, "I know."

As we all turn to make our way out of the building I feel a hand on my shoulder, holding me back. I wait until everyone else has turned a corner before I turn around to see Eric stopped behind me with a crooked smirk plastered on his lips. His chest is completely coated in blue and before I can stop him or run he scoops as much paint off his chest as he can and smashes it in my face.

I gasp and smack him on the arm, "What the heck was that?!"

He laughs softly before leaning in close to whisper, "You had time to shoot him before he shot me."

I smack him again and walk after the others. When we get outside I hear Amanda start giggling, "Did you get shot in the face?" I turn toward the blonde's voice; she and Alisha are splattered with paint.

I stand there for a moment, realizing how weird this must look. I catch my reflection in one of the old shop windows; I have what looks like a blue handprint across my face that matches my highlights. I finally burst into hysterical laughter; I can't manage a reply, just to shake my head no. After a moment Four shakes his head and orders us all back to the train.

When we get off the train I am exhausted, every muscle in my body feels heavy. Just as I am about to go into the bathroom to get cleaned up, I notice that Carl is standing alone in the dorm. I walk over and softly put a hand on his arm, "Carl?"

He turns to me with tired, questioning eyes, "Yeah?"

"About earlier, I just wanted to make sure…" I trail off, but I know he understands.

He shrugs his shoulders, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I smile and hug him, "Thank you." I pull back and wiggle my eyebrows, "I owe you one. If you ever need me to pretend I don't know anything about you and you know who, you can count on me."

The smile on his lips drops but never leaves his eyes as he repeats, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

**Ok, so question of the chapter: Are there any non-training activities or scenes you guys really want to see in upcoming chapters? **

**Until next time, I hope to hear from you guys in the review section (hint hint, nudge nudge) **


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone! I was planning to update sooner, but I ended up in the hospital again. While I was there, I was in so much pain that they had to put me on pretty strong pain killers and, long story short, I basically slept for three days. So I'm back now and I hope you like the new chapter. Shoot me a review and tell me what you think!**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – Glad you liked my take on last chapter. To answer your question, I was looking at a map of Navy Pier for an attraction to center my capture the flag chapter around that wasn't the Ferris-wheel or carousel when I noticed the "Amazing Chicago Funhouse Maze", and I thought that could be fun.**

**hidden-behind-the-stars**** – I am glad to hear that you like my version of Eric and my story! As for your question, I have had the end of this story planned out and basically written since before I posted chapter one. Obviously I can't tell you how this story ends, but I don't think you'll be disappointed.**

**Still don't own Eric or the Divergent world**

**Chapter Nine**

**Eric's POV**

I walk into my apartment and fling myself into my bed. I clench and unclench my fists angrily as I replay the conversation from earlier through my head for what must be the hundredth time. Today was Max and I's meeting with Jeanine Mathews and It was every bit as unpleasant as I had envisioned…

"_What, exactly, are you proposing?" Max asked, resting his head in his hands. _

_Jeanine leans forward in her seat, studying Max in the same predatory way that she looked at me the day that she told me I had to choose Dauntless. She smirks, "Exactly what I said, that our two factions align to remove the self-righteous Abnegation from power and to implement a system that works for all parties."_

_Max sighs, "And how, may I ask, do you intend to do that?" Although I already know the answer I am hoping that her answer will prove the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach wrong. _

_Her eyes move from Max and over to meet mine for the first time since I entered, before shooting back to the older man, "Leave the details to me, all I need is your assurance that you will act with me when the time comes." _

"_I have done a lot of things, Jeanine, terrible horrible things, to further your plans without asking for much in return but…" _

_Jeanine swiftly cuts him off, "Then you realize that it would be illogical to start questioning me now, when I have never lead you astray before." She shuffles the papers on her desk for a moment before gesturing toward the door, "You can go now, Maxwell." _

_I stand to follow the furious older man out, but halt at the sound of the Erudite leader's voice, "Wait a moment Eric, I still need to speak with you about something." _

_I glance at Max, and after a grudging nod I position myself in the seat in front of the desk and wait for the sound of the door clicking shut. I wait for her to talk, but after a couple of moments she has made no move to open her mouth, she just continues to shuffle through the papers on her desk. I haven't been alone in the same room with Jeanine since the day before my choosing ceremony, and now that I am I remember why I have avoided this moment for as long as I have. _

_Finally, she lets the pages fall and brings her eyes to meet mine, "From what I hear from Max, you just barely succeeded in what I asked you to do at our last meeting." She pauses to study me, waiting for me to make up some sort of excuse I suppose. When I don't respond she continues, "The next portions of my plan require much more focus and precision." She pulls an envelope out of one of her drawers and hands it to me, "I want to make sure that you are putting your mission first, and not allowing anything," She pauses as I open the file, "Or anyone to distract you."_

_I forget to breath for a moment as I flip through the contents, a series of security camera still frames. In one Gabby is kissing my cheek in the pit the night she colored her hair. In the next she is leaning against the wall while I unlock the door to my apartment. The final picture is from the night before last; it shows the two of us emerging from the maze building, I am wearing a huge smirk and she has paint smeared across her face._

_Once she is satisfied with my reaction, Jeanine continues, "I am not telling you that you can't be close to anyone, in fact quite the opposite as I need you to homologize with the Dauntless for my plan to work." She leans back in her chair and gives me a sympathetic look that is as forced as the come, "I just need you to understand that if she distracts you, or starts getting in the way of my plans for the divergent, I will have to remove her from the equation. As you know, I don't enjoy lacking control over all the variables." _

_After a moment I nod and she motions toward the door. When I get out to the hall Max is leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. We walk out the back way to avoid drawing attention to ourselves and are about half way back to the train when I finally speak, "What do you think?"_

_Max considers my question for a moment before replying, "I hate that woman, don't get me wrong, but we're in too deep to quit now." He pauses and studies the sky for a moment, "We'll agree to help with whatever her plan is."_

I open my eyes, brought back to the present by the sound of a soft nock on my door. I glance at the clock on my wall; it's nearly midnight so I have no idea who could be bugging me this late.

I cross the room and open the door to find Gabby standing nervously in the hall. I quickly move to the side to let her in before shutting the door, the picture of the two of us outside my door from the file in Jeanine's office flashing into my mind.

"Is now a bad time?" She knows me too well; she knows that something is bothering me. I shake my head and she closes the distance between us. Her lips meet mine for only a second before she moves her mouth to hover near my ear, "You should have been Candor, you're a terrible liar."

I laugh, feeling more like myself than I have since Max and I left this afternoon to meet with Jeanine, "I'm a fantastic liar, just not when you're around." She smiles and pulls my hand until I follow her to the couch, when we sit down she looks at me expectantly. "I just had a rough day," I respond dismissively, she seems to take the hint.

She turns her head to yawn and I catch sight of a fresh bruise on her jaw. She notices me staring and covers the injury self-consciously with her hand, "It looks worse than it is."

I reach out, barely touching her jaw when she flinches away. "How did it go today?" I ask softly as I pull myself up off the couch to go get her some ice. I've missed training the last two days; but from what I gathered from Four she did really well with knife throwing yesterday, despite lack of sleep from playing capture the flag.

She turns and smiles at me, "I won." After a moment her smile fades, "But I won against Jessica, so that means this will hurt her ranking, so it doesn't feel quite as good."

I hand her the ice pack and sit back down, after a moment I turn my body so I am facing her, "No offense, because Jessica seems like a cool kid and all, but all I care about is your ranking and that you're safe from getting kicked out."

She smiles at me uneasily before shaking whatever thought had entered her mind away. We sit there in silence for a moment before her eyes gloss over and she gets a distant look in her eye.

"Something else is bothering you," I observe.

She takes a deep breath, "Tomorrow is visiting day."

I nod, I had almost forgotten about visiting day with everything else that happened today. I think back to my own visiting day, how nervous I was and how badly it hurt when I ended up eating lunch alone while most of my initiate class caught up with their families. I can't really blame them for not coming, after my father called me to his office for the meeting with Jeanine he was convinced that she wanted me for a high position within the faction. I can only imagine how crushing my "choice" to leave would have been.

After a moment Gabby clears her throat and touches my shoulder, "I ran into your mother, on visiting day last year. She was really busy in the lab or you know she would have come."

I nod, before turning and kissing her forehead, "Even if your parents don't come, you always have that big dope of an older brother." I smile at the thought of seeing my best friend after so long, and it seems to be infectious because she smiles back at me.

Soon we have settled into a comfortable position; me leaning against the armrest with her head on my chest. I have a hand buried in her brown and blue curls, twirling a lock lazily around my index finger. We talk about everything and nothing for the next hour; it's the longest conversation we have been able to have in at least two years. I have forgotten how nice it is to just be able to talk without having to worry about being the person I have to pretend to be in public.

After a while her responses start becoming shorter, her voice is softer and her words sound like they are difficult to get out. Just when I think she is about to fall asleep, she sits up, "I should go."

I place an arm on her shoulder and gently pull her back toward me, "Stay."

"I can't," She says without conviction and despite her words she allows herself to fall back against me. She groans after a moment, "I really can't, people noticed last time."

I stay silent for a moment, "By the way, do I need to rough up that guy who walked in on us the other night to make sure he keeps his mouth shut?"

She thinks for a moment, "You mean Carl? No, he won't say anything."

I nod, "I could still beat him up though, just to be safe."

She turns around in my arms and her eyes feel like she is trying to burn a hole through me, "That isn't even a little bit funny." I raise my hands in surrender and she nuzzles her face into my shoulder.

"I have to get up early," I say after a moment, "Stay and I'll make sure you get back to the dorm early enough."

She laughs softly into my chest, "Wouldn't I get more sleep if I just went back now?"

I open my mouth to respond but for a moment I can't think of a good response and I just end up making a weird wheezing noise. "Yes, but you know you'll sleep better here; quality over quantity, right Gidget?" I ask softly.

She puts her hands on either side of my shoulders and pushes herself up. She stares into my eyes for a moment before growling softly and letting the upper half of her body fall back down, "Fine, you win."

**Visiting Day and stage one rankings next chapter! If you have any fear landscape/simulation ideas, I can still use a couple. Love you guys!**


	11. Chapter 10

**Hello again! I am finally starting to feel a bit better! I am trying to post and write as much as I can now because I start a new job next week and my schedule for the first month is going to suck. (I work until 10pm every night except Tuesday + Wednesday, bleh) But on the bright side, I have been super productive lately; I have written 3 chapters in the last 48 hrs!**

**Laura013****: You have no idea how happy it made me to wake up and check my account and find your review. I'm really glad to hear that so many of you like my take on Eric, when I posted chapter 1 I was nervous that people would think he was too… not-Eric-like. Hope to hear from you again.**

** .Dot****: I think that there are two sides to every story, and I love writing stories where I get to tell the "bad guy's" POV on things. I'm glad you like my take on Eric! And I hope to hear what you think of upcoming chapters.**

**I still don't own Divergent or the Dauntless. Let's get on with it, shall we? **

**Chapter Ten**

**Gabby's POV**

When I wake up the next morning I am comfortable and warm. It catches me off guard for a moment when I realize that my pillow is breathing, but I quickly remember where I fell asleep last night. My eyes flutter open; it's still pitch black in the apartment so it must be very early. I pull my watch as close to my face as I can get it, but it's still too dark to see the hands.

After a moment of staring up into the nothingness, I hear the sound of Eric's alarm clock trying to wake him up from inside his bedroom. He groans and curses softly under his breath as he starts to sit up, but then he seems to realize that I am still on top of him. "Gidget," He says softly, I try to slow my breathing and pretend to be asleep to avoid having to get up. He laughs and leans forward, "I can tell you're awake, Gidg."

I giggle back softly and sit up, stretching my arms and legs as far as I can, "Sorry, you must have been uncomfortable last night."

He mirrors my movements and sits up next to me, "No, I was fine."

I move onto my knees and kiss him on the cheek, "I'll get back to my room so you can get ready for whatever you had to do at this ungodly hour."

I start to stand, but he quickly pulls me back to him, his lips crashing into mine. He flips us over so he has me pinned to the armrest. He pulls back for just long enough to mumble something about snooze buttons and not actually needing to get up yet.

He has just pressed his lips to mine again when the occupant of the next apartment over starts banging loudly on the wall. It isn't until now that I realize that his alarm clock is still blaring away in the bedroom. I laugh as he peals himself off of me and goes to turn the alarm off, making sure to bang on the thin wall in reply to his neighbor's complaint on his way back.

When he returns I am standing and have my shoes back on. He studies me for a moment, "Don't suppose I can talk you out of going?" I smile at him and he growls, "Fine, I'll see you later." He crosses the room and kisses me again before stepping aside so that I can leave.

My plan is to hurry as fast as I can until I am a couple hallways away from his apartment to avoid running into anyone, but I'm not paying attention when I round one of the corners and I slam into another person. We both stumble backward and I grasp at the wall in a desperate attempt to steady myself.

"Gabby?" I look up and find myself staring up into the questioning blue orbs belonging to Four. I stutter dumbly for a moment, trying to think of something to say while he stares down at me. My brother's voice in my head chastises me for not being able to form coherent thoughts. Four raises an eyebrow, "What are you doing on this side of the complex this early?"

"I, uh," My brain is still weighed down with sleep, and to be honest, half of it is still back with Eric on the couch or thinking about how good it felt when he kissed me this morning. Finally, I manage to shake myself out of whatever drooling idiotic state I had fallen into, "I went for a walk because I couldn't sleep, I ended up over her. All these halls look the same."

He studies me skeptically for a moment before he points to a hall that connects to the one we are in, "That will take you back to the dorm." With that he keeps walking and I sprint all the way back to the dorm room.

When I get into the room I sneak over to my dresser and pull out my nicest outfit before heading to the showers. Once I am clean and dressed, I stare at myself in the mirror. IF my parents come, which I doubt they will, they will be very displeased with my hair. I finally settle on pulling my blue and brown curls into a messy bun. I put on light eye makeup and check myself one last time. I have on tight black jeans and black boots; the shirt I have on is open a bit in the back, just enough to show off the tattoo on my upper back. While my parents won't approve of the 'unnecessary defilement of my skin', I figure that showing my way of honoring my old faction will at least bridge the gap a little.

When I get back to the dorm everyone is up, slowly milling around the room and trying to avoid being the first to head for the pit where our families may or may not be waiting. I walk over and sit next to Jessica who is sprawled out across the foot of Carl's bed.

"Well," Jeff says as he finishes tying his shoes, "At least if our families don't come, we still have each other."

I smile at him and then glance in turn from Jessica to Carl, "You guys ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Carl mumbles.

We all stand and are about to leave the room when the doors open to reveal Four and Eric. "Good, you're all still here," Eric says in the voice he uses when he means to intimidate, "Some advice before you go to see if your families have bothered to come." He pauses, his grey eyes catching mine, and communicating that he means the warning for me in particular, "We take the phrase 'faction before blood' very seriously here." He pauses, his eyes moving to meet each of the other six transfers for a moment, "Let's just say that seaming overly attached to your old faction and your family won't help your ranking any."

I know why he meant this warning for me, Andrew and I have always been very close. I nod just enough for him to notice before he and Four leave the room. I walk to the pit a couple of steps behind my friends, none of us speak.

We split up once we reach the pit; Jeff scans the crowd for a moment before rushing toward a middle aged Candor couple standing anxiously near the base of the path. Jessica's older sister is standing and talking with a couple that I recognize as Carl's parents. The pair hurry toward the cluster of their family members dressed in blue, and I pause to watch their reunion for a moment. Amanda and Alisha stand a few feet away from me talking to a middle aged Candor man and two women. Their families are pretty close from what Jeff has told me.

I find Michael last; he is standing with his back to me, staring down into the chasm. Even though I know it's very unlikely, I scan the crowd for anyone in Amity colors. When, unsurprisingly, I don't find any I turn my attention back to the large boy standing alone; poor Michael.

I am about to go over to him until I feel someone tap my shoulder. When I turn around I am greeted by the smiling face of my older brother. I can't stop myself; I fling my arms around his neck, "Andrew!"

He stiffens up for a moment, obviously uncomfortable with the public display of affection, but after a moment he hugs me back. I hear someone clear their throat behind us; I release my brother and turn to, surprisingly, find both of my parents.

"Gabriella, what have you done to yourself?" My mother asks, tenderly reaching out to feel a patch of my hair that is dyed blue.

My father steps forward and abruptly jerks my chin up, studying the multiple bruises coloring my jaw, "More importantly who did this to you?"

I gently move his hand away, "It's really not as bad as it looks, and it's all part of training."

My father and mother both look at me like I am a stranger for a moment before my brother breaks the silence, "You Dauntless are always bragging about how good the food is here, I don't know about you but I could eat."

I smile at him, grateful for the distraction, but my mother smacks his arm, "We ate before we came, I swear Andrew, you eat more than anyone I know. I would prefer if you would show as around, Gabriella."

My father nods in agreement, "I would like to see more, it's a fascinating structure."

I laugh and start walking, as I do Andrew falls in line beside me with our parents in the back. I grab my brother's arm and lean on him a little as we walk; keeping my voice low so that I know only he can hear me I whisper, "Thank you. I know they wouldn't have come if you hadn't talked them into it."

He smiles back and I turn my attention to the task at hand. I show my family around the pit, through the shopping areas, and the cafeteria. When I run out of things to show them I lead them over to the chasm, knowing that the river will keep their attention for a while.

Andrew is mid-sentence, babbling about the type of rock formation that the river cuts through, when he stops abruptly, "Eric?"

I look up to find my boyfriend standing a few feet away; he is wearing the same mischievous smile I remember from when the two were in trouble when we were children, "Hello Andrew, Mr. and Mrs. Lester."

"Mother, father," I quickly put in, unable to hide the smirk in voice at the way he talks like he always used to around adults back in Erudite, "You remember Eric, right?" My parents nod and I continue, "He transferred here a year ahead of me, he's one of the five leaders."

My father nods approvingly, "That's quite impressive for someone so young; I'll have to mention that to your father when I see him next."

Eric smiles at him, "I would appreciate that."

My mother takes a step forward, studying Eric like he is a new species of insect, "I almost wouldn't recognize you, what with all the metal implanted in your face and the fact that you seem to have lost your hair trimmer."

Andrew and I share a look, our mother transferred out of Candor many years ago but old habits die hard. I finally step in to save him, "I'm sure that Eric has things to do, we shouldn't keep him."

My parents back off and Eric nods to them respectfully, "It was nice to see you all again." As he passes us he bumps Andrew's shoulder playfully and his hand bumps mine just long enough to slip a paper between my fingers.

I quickly slip the paper into my pocket without looking at it before turning back to my family. We talk for a bit longer and before I know it my family is leaving. My goodbyes with my parents are short and sweet. Once they turn and start up the path that leads out of the complex, I turn to my brother. By the time it is his turn to say goodbye, I am acutely aware of the burning sensation behind my eyes. I stare at my brother for a moment before he catches me off guard by enveloping me in a bear hug.

He squeezes me tightly and whispers, "You and Eric are together, aren't you?"

I pull back, quickly swiping at the tears that have managed to escape, "I have no idea what you're talking about; you have the strangest ideas sometimes dearest Andrew."

He rolls his eyes and squeezes my shoulder, "Regardless, tell him that I said if he hurts you, I will kill him." I smile and stand at the base of the path, waving until he disappears from view.

**xxxxxxxxxxx**

As usual, that night at dinner I sit at a table with Jeff, Jessica, and Carl. We stay silent for the most part; we tried talking about seeing our families but that was too hard. Then Jeff and Carl tried talking about rankings, but this made Jessica and I more nervous since we both lost two fights. Eventually we just decided to eat in silence.

I am almost done with my food when Michael approaches the table, "Hey guys, I just saw Four heading to the dorm and he said he's going to put the rankings up."

Whatever appetite I had is gone; I have my tray dumped and am on my way to the dorm within a couple of moments without waiting for the others. When I get to the dorm the chalkboard is on the ground facing away from me, Four and Eric are standing on either side.

My eyes meet Eric's for an instant; he seems calm so I must not be in immediate danger. However, I can't help the voice in the back of my head that wonders if maybe he is just acting calm since we are in a crowded room. After a moment I feel Jessica's hand slide into my right, her other hand is squeezing Carl's wrist. Jeff comes to stand on my left, sliding an arm across my shoulders.

Eric's eyes land on Jeff's arm for a moment before he turns to Four, waiting for him to speak. Four explains how the rankings work and the system for the other two stages again before turning and hanging the chalk board back up. When he steps away I immediately scan the list:

Jeff

Michael

Carl

Gabby

Jessica

Amanda

Alisha

I study the list; I'm not really surprised by any of the rankings. Jeff lost a fight to Carl but he was the best with a gun and a knife. Michael was the best during the fights, but he can't aim a gun to save his life. Carl was the next best fighter, he only lost one match, and he was pretty good with the small weapons. I was the best out of the four girls, Jessica a close second, and I honestly have no idea why the blondes even chose Dauntless.

None of it should surprise me, but it still hits me like a blow to the stomach and I am beginning to panic internally. The realization that my best might not have been enough to stop me from ending up factionless is impossible to ignore now that the list is staring me in the face. If four transfers get sent packing I am just low enough to get kicked out.

A strangled cry brings me out of my thoughts and I turn to find Aisha on the floor crying, Amanda is hovering over her shoulder trying his best to comfort her.

Eric clears his throat, clearly annoyed with the younger girl's inability to keep it together, "Cuts will be announced in the morning." With that our two instructors leave.

After a while I turn to leave the room, I can't stay here listening to Alisha cry. I walk until I reach a dead end, I lean against the wall under one of the blue lights, and I finally pull Eric's note from earlier out of my pocket. I smile at the words on the page and hold the note to my chest.

I go back to the dorm and go to bed with the other initiates. After everyone is asleep and the lights are out, I creep through the compound and out into the pit. I sneak over to a path that leads down deep into the chasm, per the note's instruction. When I get down to the bottom I find Eric leaning against the rocks, watching the river rush past.

"Interesting choice of meeting place," I say softly as I sit down next to his feet.

He slides down the wall and positions himself next to me, "It's away from the cameras." I turn to him, about to ask why he is worried about that when he turns to me, sliding an arm around the back of my neck and pulling my close so he can kiss me.

After a moment he pulls away, I lean against his shoulder and we sit there in comfortable silence for a while. After a while, I am the one who interrupts the quiet, "Andrew said to tell you if you hurt me he'd kill you."

In response, Eric laughs the deepest, happiest laugh I have heard from him lately, "You told him?"

I shake my head no, "He figured it out on his own."

"Well," His smile only grows as he reaches a hand up and starts to twirl one of my blue curls around his finger, "He doesn't have to worry about that happening."

I smile back at him for a moment before I sigh and lean against him again, "I don't suppose you can just tell me now who is getting cut?"

He chuckles and moves his arm so it is resting across my shoulders, "No, but you don't have to worry about it."

I nod and snuggle closer to him, "Too bad they don't have some sort of appeal process for getting kicked out."

He laughs again, "What do you mean?"

"Well if you are getting cut, clearly the instructors and/or leaders think you aren't brave enough," He nods and I continue, "There should be something you can do to try and prove your bravery before you actually get cut; a final chance to prove that you aren't a coward."

He considers this for a moment before asking somewhat sarcastically, "Like what? Dangling you over the chasm for five minutes?"

"Yeah, or something like that," I think about it for a moment before adding, "Although, I guess that sounds a lot more cruel out loud than it did in my head."

He chuckles and we fall back into silence. After a while he stands and helps me up, he kisses me goodnight and I am about to head back up the path when he grabs my wrist, "That's one of the things I love about you, Gabriella Lester." I turn back to face him, cocking my head to the side curiously, "You never give up, or accept defeat until you have exhausted all your options. You always fight until you can't fight anymore, no matter how bad you're losing; both literally and metaphorically."

I smile at him, and after a moment the smile turns into a smirk, "Love?"

He laughs loudly and kisses me again before walking back up the pathway, disappearing into the dark room above.

**Well, what do you think? I'm getting excited for fear simulations! Don't forget to shoot me a review or a PM! I am ( 99.99% ) positive that, since my schedule is going to get a little crazy starting next week, I am going to go ahead and post both tomorrow + Sunday; but if you guys would rather I spread them out I can do that too, let me know!**


	12. Chapter 11

**Hello again my lovely readers! I am still a writing machine, I have been finishing rough drafts of chapters like crazy, but editing is still a little time consuming.**

**Laura013 ****– You officially win the award for fastest reviewer! I checked at like 1:30 this morning (yeah, I was up until 5:30a.m. my time writing), not really expecting to have any views even yet, but I had one view and your review.**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – I'm glad that my THAT reference went over well, I was worried. Good to hear that you liked the chapter!**

** NeonPinkDot**** – Hopefully it won't decide to erase most of your name this time. I was pretty proud of my idea for the dangling over the chasm reference when I came up with it a couple days ago, so I'm glad it went over well and that I made you laugh. **

**You guys have no idea how indescribably happy it makes me when I read your reviews. Hope to hear from you again soon. I still don't own Divergent. **

**Chapter Eleven**

**Gabby's POV**

I wake the next morning feeling like I am floating. Despite the horribly uncomfortable mattress and the fact that I only got a couple hours of sleep, I am happy. My family came to see me, even though I may not see them again, the knowledge that they still love me and don't resent my decision means the world to me. On top of that, last night with Eric was surprisingly perfect. I am still silently thinking about how happy I feel when I see Jeff's head appear at the end of the bed.

"Oh, you're already up," He says, his voice full of surprise, "You're never up in time for breakfast."

I sit up and he moves so I can climb down from my bunk, "Well there's a first time for everything." I glance at the bunk next to ours, Jessica and Carl are still asleep, "Lets wake the lovebirds up and go get food." Carl nods and we each take a bunk. Once the other pair are awake we walk together to get food.

"So, what should we do with our day off?" Jessica asks as we settle into a table in the corner.

I think for a moment, "Well, right after breakfast I think Four said they would have the cuts announced."

"And after we all make it," Jeff says it so confidently that it doesn't leave any room for argument, "We should all get a new tattoo or something pierced to celebrate."

I smile, "Sounds good to me."

"What happened to Miss Apprehensive," Jessica asks with a big smile, "Last time we all decided to do this you nearly rationalized your way out of it."

Carl nods in agreement, "She got one tattoo and now she's addicted. You're going to end up covered in them because you're addicted to the endorphins and adrenalin rush," He adds, only half joking.

I laugh, "Like I told you last time, I wanted to think any tattoo I got through before I did it; I've had time to do that now. I wanted to pierce my nose last time too, but decided it would be smarter to wait until after fighting, which is over now."

"You can take the girl out of Erudite, but you can never take the Erudite out of the girl," Jeff puts in between bites, "Must you over analyze everything?"

I ignore him and turn to Jessica, "What are you going to do?"

She thinks for a moment, "Maybe pierce my eyebrow." At hearing this Carl makes a noise and she quickly turns to him, "What you don't think I should?"

Jeff and I share the look we always do when the two of them start acting like the couple they constantly deny that they are. As Carl is about to answer, Four approaches our table, "The list is up."

Our table falls into silence and we all quickly stand, after dumping our trays we walk silently back to the dorm. As soon as I open the door, I can hear Alisha sobbing. I do my best not to look at her; I just focus on the board, Amanda and Alisha's names have been crossed out.

I breathe a sigh of relief and fling my arms around Jessica, we both made it. She breaks away from me and leaps into a surprised Carl's arms. I chuckle softly before turning to hug Jeff. I have just pulled away when the door opens and Eric walks in with Max.

He walks over and I watch solemnly as they talk to the small teary eyed blonds. I suddenly feel ashamed of myself for being so happy, even being able to laugh, while two of the people I have lived with for the last week are about to become factionless.

I hang my head, leaning slightly against Jeff for support. I watch as the two girls pack their few possessions and are escorted out. Even though it is only a difference of two people, the room suddenly feels very empty and it's uncomfortably quiet without their constant chatter and giggling.

The four of us stand there silently for a couple of minutes. None of us want to be the first one to speak; nobody wants to look like they don't care about the loss of the two former Candor transfers. Finally, it is Jeff, who transferred with them who clears his throat and speaks.

"No use standing around here all day, feeling bad about something we can't change," He says softly. He clears his throat again before adding, "It sounds horrible, but if it wasn't them it would have been Gabby and Jess, we should focus on the positive."

"It still feels like we should do something," Jessica replies softly and I nod in agreement.

"They aren't dead," Carl starts, but then seems to think better of it. After a moment he amends, "They aren't dead, but we could have a little memorial service for them, talk about the good times. That way we don't feel like we are completely minimizing their leaving."

We all nod in agreement and decide to do it tonight, Michael comes into the room while we are planning and I invite him too. After we are satisfied with our plans for the evening we decide to go celebrate the good, the fact that we all made it through round one.

Before we leave for the tattoo parlor I grab the note that Andrew gave me before the choosing ceremony from under my pillow and tuck it into my pocket. When we get there I go first, since I already know what I want.

"Hi Tori," I greet the older woman.

She smiles at me, "Gabby right? I take it you made it through round one, here for a victory tattoo?"

I chuckle, "Something like that." I pull the paper pull the paper out of my pocket; I have it folded so just the design on the bottom corner is visible. "I want this design of the three gears here," I say indicating the spot on the back of my hand between my thumb and index finger, "I want them to be blue, but I also want a fourth gear in black that interlocks with them."

Tori nods and sets to work, when she is done the tattoo is only takes up about a two inch square section of my hand. I smile at the bandage covering the fresh ink; one gear to represent each of the people I love.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

I am standing alone near the chasm, watching the river when I hear someone walk up behind me. Jeff, Jess, and Carl all decided to go back to the dorm and take a nap since we will be up late tonight with our little memorial. I turn to see who is coming and find Justin standing a few feet away.

"Congratulations," He says as he comes to stand next to me, looking down at the deceptively beautiful river below.

I smile, "Thank you. You too, I figured you were a goner," I reply jokingly.

"Ha ha ha," he says dryly and nudges my shoulder playfully. He turns to me, his eyes full of pride, "I'm ranked second among the Dauntless-born, you?"

"Fourth."

He nods, "Bet you're happy it was a two/two split between the two groups and not four of you guys going home." I nod and he continues, "I'll deny it if you ever tell anyone, but so am I."

I look at him surprised but he shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly, "Justin, are you going soft?"

He laughs and is about to reply when a group of people walk by and call his name. We both turn to face them and I am surprised to see Eric among them. I recognize a couple of other initiates from my capture the flag teem. A girl who looks like she is probably a couple years older than we are makes her way over to us. She throws an arm around Justin's neck, pulling him down into a head lock, "Are you coming little brother, or did you chicken out?"

"Oh I'm coming, I was just congratulating a friend of mine on making it past stage one," He replies as he tries to disentangle himself from his sister's arm.

At her brother's comment she seems to notice me for the first time and reaches out her free hand to shake mine, "Hi, I'm Meghan."

I smile at her, "I'm Gabby."

She smiles back before looking suspiciously between Justin and I, "Is my brother bothering you?"

I laugh, "Yes, all the time."

"Hey!" Justin yells, still trying to free his head, "I take back what I said before."

Meghan finally releases her brother and he stumbles forward a couple steps. Once he has his balance, he pauses to straighten his hair before hurrying to meet up with the group of Dauntless. As my gaze follows him my eyes meet Eric's and he smiles. Meghan seems to notice our staring match, after a moment she touches my shoulder and I jump.

She laughs and I blush, quickly scanning the crowd to see if anyone else noticed that we were staring at each other. No one else, except for the older Dauntless girl next to me, seems to be paying attention.

Meghan nudges me and leans in close before whispering, "You and Eric, huh?" When I don't answer she laughs again, "You should come with us, we don't usually bring transfers along, but I'm sure they'll agree to make an exception."

"Come where?" I ask softly; Meghan merely smiles at me before grabbing my wrist and pulling me along after her.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

About an hour later I am packed into an elevator in the empty Hancock building with the group of Dauntless-born initiates. When the doors opens I am the last out, the other initiates have already started climbing a ladder to get to the roof. When I make it to the top of the ladder the wind is so powerful I feel like I might just blow away, like I am as light as a piece of paper. The others are standing near a pole with the members who came with us, there is a steel cable attached to the pole that leads down off the roof and to the ground. Next to it there is a pile of black harnesses.

"Holy crap," Is all I can say, it comes out as barely a whisper right before the wind smacks me in the face with a chunk of my own hair.

"I know."

I look to my right, I hadn't noticed that Eric stayed back to wait for me until he was close enough to whisper in my ear. I turn and smile at him the best I can with the wind blowing in my face, "Is it as bad as it looks?"

He laughs, the wind messes up his long slicked back hair and I can't help but think he has never looked happier, "I wouldn't know." He pauses to try and fix his hair, but the wind just blows it loose again, "I didn't get to come last year, they don't make a habit of bringing transfers along."

I swallow hard; I would feel much better if he had done this before, "Well, at least if this goes horribly wrong it should be a fast death. The likelihood of surviving that drop long enough to really suffer is pretty slim."

Eric stares at me for a moment like I have grown a second head, "You're so weird." He looks down and grabs my hand, running a thumb over the bandage, "What happened?"

I shake my head and smile at him, "New tattoo." He nods and I turn my attention back to the group. I realize that people are starting to notice that we haven't caught up yet, I incline my head toward the cluster of people and Eric nods again.

We walk over to the group and get in the line. They call Eric up to go with the members who are going before the initiates; when he moves up he pulls me along with him so that I am in line right behind him, the first initiate. No one argues with him, I'm not sure if it is because Eric is a leader or because the others are glad to have another person between themselves and certain death.

Justin, who is standing directly behind me, jumps up and down excitedly like a child, "This is going to be awesome!" I turn to face him; despite his outward enthusiasm I can see the fear in his eyes.

I suppose that makes sense, fear is irrational but it's part of being human. You can't be completely free from fear, just in control of it. I turn back to face Eric; he is watching calmly as the first girl, who looks to be about my age, is helped into her sling.

"Go Shauna!" Meghan yells breathlessly, jumping up and down just like her brother is behind me.

The girl, Shauna, gives the boy who helped her into her sling a thumbs-up to signal she is ready and he gives her a shove forward. After a moment the boy motions for the next person to come forward. I stare at my shoes, trying to ignore the Erudite in me who is currently calculating the probability that one of the straps or cables will snap.

When I finally look back up it is just Meghan and Eric left in front of me. I reach my hand forward quickly, just enough to bump Eric's arm, but hopefully not enough of a movement to attract attention. As Meghan disappears over the edge of the roof, he turns his head a little and whispers, "You'll be fine, I'll see you at the bottom."

I watch as he climbs into his sling, choosing to go backward, and I find it harder to breathe with each strap that's secured. He winks at me right before the guy sends him careening toward the ground below. Once he is gone I feel Justin nudge me from behind, "Okay transfer, you're up!"

I walk over to the guy as confidently as I can manage on my shaky legs; he studies me for a moment before smiling and sticking his hand out, "Hi, I'm Zeke. Meghan said she smuggled a transfer in, guessing that's you."

I nod and shake as hand back as best as I can in my current state of panic, "Gabby."

He helps me into the harness face first and my heart hammers against the inside of my chest a little harder with each strap that Zeke fastens, "Ready?" I nod and he pushes me forward.

I could have imagined this moment in my mind a million times, but the reality is much different. My eyes are burning and I can feel the tears being forced out of my tear ducts. The freezing wind stings my face and pins my arms to my body until I force them out to the sides like I am flying.

My brain tells me to scream, but the as soon as my lips part the wind refuses to allow it. My mind is completely empty; all I know in that moment is that the feeling of the wind rushing through my hair and watching the ground below me blur together is the best feeling in the world.

When I finally start to slow down and I am able to breath properly again, I let out a whoop and it is returned by the group on the ground that I am quickly approaching. As I slide to a stop, I feel the hysterical laughter bubbling up in my throat. By the time I have come to a stop above the group of members I am laughing so hard I am crying. I let myself fall into the net of their arms and then Eric helps steady me on my feet. I stay like that for a while, clinging to his arms for support.

"Well?" Meghan asks, her long brown hair matted and windblown.

I have finally stopped laughing, but when I open my mouth to answer I hear myself giggle, "That was amazing!"

Eric smiles at me broadly and, for the first time since the aptitude test, I feel like I am home.

**Well, what did you think? I am planning to post again tomorrow! Comment or PM me if you have a moment, I love hearing from you!**

**ALSO, right before I posted this I found a kitten outside in the snow. He is black and has grey markings on his face. I have to keep him here until morning since it's late and everything is closed, so obviously he needed a name. So little Eric and I will see how this goes. **


	13. Chapter 12

**Hello again! Well, things didn't work out between little Eric and I. I had a horrible massive asthma attack this morning, and the only logical explanation is that he was the cause. So he is gone and I am sad because he was adorable. On the positive side, I have so much written that I am planning to keep up with updating daily.**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – The funny thing about Justin's character is that when I originally started writing this story, I was planning on Justin only being a jerk in the very beginning and then they were going to be friends. But I just never found a time that didn't feel forced or awkward for that to happen.**

**Laura013**** – Well you did review eventually, so I suppose I can forgive you for taking longer :p**

**I don't own Divergent because the world isn't a wish granting factory (while we are on the subject, I don't own TFiOS either)**

**Chapter Twelve**

**Gabby's POV**

When we get back to Dauntless HQ I have finally given up on fixing my windblown curls and have pulled them up into a bun. I find my friends at a table and quickly settle in next to Jeff.

"Where have you been hiding?" Jessica asks as soon as my butt hits the seat, "I wanted to go looking for you, but Carl insisted that you must have wanted some alone time."

I smile to myself; Carl probably assumed that I snuck off with Eric. I smile at him before turning back to Jess, "No, I was actually kidnaped by a group of Dauntless and taken to the top of the Hancock building."

She rolls her eyes, "If you don't want to tell me where you went you could just say so."

I laugh before grabbing my fork and starting to pick at my food. I try to participate in the conversation, but my mind keeps drifting back to that moment when I was flying above the city. When we are done eating we go back to the dorm to get things ready for tonight.

Once all the lights are out for the night and the complex has gone to sleep, the five of us sneak through the halls and toward the chasm. We have the "not funeral", as we have started calling it, for the girls. We all stand in a big semi-circle while Jeff says a few words since he knew them the best, and then we each talk about our best memory of them.

It seems silly to have a funeral for two people none of us really knew all that well, especially when they aren't actually dead, but I think that each of us like to believe that if it had been our names crossed out that the they would have mourned the loss of our presence. They may not have been strong enough or brave enough, but one thing that I do know about both girls is that they tried their hardest until the moment that they walked them out. Perseverance is a quality that I value, so I respect them both for that.

As we stand next to each other in the bathroom, washing our faces and such before bed, Jessica turns to me, "When I die, I don't want a funeral."

I stare at her for a moment, "You're not going to die, but for the sake of curiosity, are you saying you don't want people to acknowledge your death?"

"No, I want people to party," She says simply. After a moment she elaborates, "Think about it, do you want a bunch of people standing around crying and mourning the fact that you're gone? Let people drink and celebrate the fact that I lived, not that I died"

I chuckle, "Well this is Dauntless so I have a feeling that won't be a problem." I think about it for a moment, "I guess I agree. I would rather people think about the good times and pig-out on cake instead of people sitting around crying over me."

Jessica nods in agreement, "Ok, so when we are old and grey, if I die first you promise to drink until you pass out. If you die first, I eat an entire Dauntless chocolate cake. Basically, either of us dies, the other one ends up throwing up."

I start laughing and then so does she, we laugh until we are both crying, partially from the conversation but mostly because we are exhausted and it is late. Right before we go back to the dorm I hug her, "Deal."

**xxxxxxxxxxxx**

The next morning after breakfast we are all herded into a hallway with the Dauntless born initiates and told to wait. I am sitting between Justin and Jeff, waiting for something, anything, to happen.

"This must be some sort of scare tactic," Jessica whispers from her spot on the other side of Jeff, "They leave us out here to silently imaging every horrible thing that could be behind that door."

"Well, thank you very much," Justin replies sharply before putting his head in his hands, "I wasn't before but I am now."

Any laughter at his comment is cut short when the door opens and Four steps into the hallway, "Michael, you're first."

Over the next two hours Four comes and takes about half of us one by one, but nobody comes back out which leads me to believe that the room has a back exit. I have just glanced at my watch for what must be the hundredth time when Four comes out again, "Gabby."

I stand on shaky legs and follow him, feeling like a sheep being led to the slaughter. Once inside the room I feel myself go white, the room contains a chair much like the one used during the aptitude test and it is surrounded by similar machines. The room is dark, most of the light is provided by a computer screen in the corner.

I turn to look at my instructor curiously, and he nods for me to sit, "Have you ever heard the term face your fears?"

I suddenly remember overhearing a conversation between my parents when I was younger. They had been discussing a fear simulation serum being worked on in my father's lab, and from what I remember the early stages had some… unpleasant side effects. I swallow hard and nod so that he knows that I am listening.

"This simulation will teach you how to control your emotions when faced with a frightening situation," I lean back in the chair and try to relax as I listen to him talk.

"Okay," I reply softly, ashamed of how much my voice shakes. I feel cold suddenly and I can't stop my body from shaking slightly. I decide that I need to distract myself, so I do what comes naturally; I let my curious side take over, "What was your ranking Four?"

He looks over his shoulder at me for a second as he prepares things on the table next to the computer, "First, why do you ask?"

"Curiosity," I reply before taking a deep breath, "I figured you had to be top five to get this job."

He nods in agreement, "Very Erudite of you." He walks back over to me holding a syringe.

"Oh lovely," I say sarcastically and close my eyes to avoid watching the needle as he moves it toward me. I breathe deeply in through my nose and out slowly through my mouth.

"You alright?" He asks, sounding almost amused, "I haven't even injected you yet."

I open one eye and force a small smile, "When I was a kid I was deathly afraid of needles. When you tense up it only makes it worse, so my mom taught me to not look at the needle and just focus on breathing, it keeps me calm."

Four doesn't say anything, but a moment later I feel the sting of the needle being jabbed into the side of my neck. A deep ach seeps through my throat, I try to swallow but it's difficult so I just keep focusing on breathing.

"The simulation will start in about sixty seconds," Four starts to explain. I keep my eyes closed, focusing on breathing in and then out again as I listen to him talk, "The serum stimulates your amygdale which, as I'm sure you know, is the part of your brain responsible for negative emotions – like fear – and then induces a hallucination. Your brain's electrical activity is then transmitted to this computer where it is translated into a simulated image that I can see and monitor. I then forward the recording to Dauntless administrators for review." I hear him fumbling with the wires and pressing a couple keys on the keyboard as he talks, "You stay in the simulation until you calm down by lowering your heart rate and controlling your breathing."

As he finishes the last sentence I start to feel like my heart is going to explode, it's beating too fast. My palms start to get sweaty and it becomes harder to breath. I can feel myself beginning to panic, but I do my best to remember that it's just the serum.

"Fair warning: the first time is the worst," I try to ignore the knot forming in my stomach; I think I'm going to throw up. Suddenly my body feels impossibly heavy and I can feel my grip on reality slipping away, like the moment just before you fall asleep. Through the drug induced haze I hear Four's voice one last time, but he sounds far away, "Be brave."

_When I open my eyes I am laying on the ground in a gloomy but oddly familiar room. There are pipes sticking out of the walls at odd angles and cobwebs hang everywhere. It appears that every inch is coated in a film of dust. The only light comes from a single bulb hanging down in the middle of the ceiling, but after a moment it begins flickering rapidly before going out altogether._

_My heart is pounding so hard that it hurts and I am starting to hyperventilate. Suddenly I feel something crawling up my leg. I try to move my hand to flick whatever it is off, but my body refuses to oblige. I whimper pathetically, wishing that could at least see what was on me. _

_Then I feel something on my stomach, it tickles slightly, like whatever is crawling on me is under my shirt. I start breathing more heavily and I can feel the tears beginning to pool in my eyes. Suddenly the light bulb flickers again before coming back on. I gasp and regret wishing for the ability to see. _

"_Oh no… oh no…." I manage between labored breaths._

_Not only are my legs and midsection covered in poisonous spiders, but out of every nook and cranny more spiders are crawling toward me. Big, small, furry, brown, black – all sorts of spiders, but they all have one thing in common, they are all poisonous. _

_I know why this room is feels familiar now. When Andrew was about eight, he was obsessed with spiders. He had stacks upon stacks of books about them, and he was always talking about how spiders were everywhere. This terrified seven year old me to no end, and one of the side effects of my terror was a recurring nightmare in which I was trapped in a room full of poisonous spiders; this room full of poisonous spiders. _

_I try to close my eyes but I don't have control over my eyelids anymore. As I lay there, unable to stop it, the spiders cover my body. They are inside my clothes, in my shoes, and worst of all in my hair. Then they start crawling into my ears, up my nose, across my eyes, and through my slightly parted lips. I try to scream but when I do they start their decent down my throat and I find myself choking. _

_Think Gabby! There is something nagging at the back of my mind, something important that I have forgotten._

_If I don't figure something out soon I will suffocate. My lungs are burning and my brain is screaming for oxygen. Think Gabby!_

_Then my mind finds what it was searching for, one sentence that changes everything: This isn't real. I am not on the floor in the room that haunted my worst childhood nightmares; I am in a chair in a simulation room with Four. _

_This isn't real! _

_My brain screams for me to listen and suddenly it's like my muscles have all been set free, I sit up and cough until my throat is clear and I can breathe again. I slowly start to calm down and the eventually the entire scene fades to black. _

I open my eyes and I am back in the metal chair in the room with Four. I stare at the ceiling, focus on breathing, and try to ignore that my head is pounding like a second heart beat. I feel something touch my shoulder and I scream. I sit up and turn my head, only to find Four's hand resting on my shoulder.

"It's okay Gabby, it's just me," He says softly as I fight to catch my breath.

I lean back and he comes around to stand in front of me. He stares at me like I have a third ear in the middle of my forehead for a few seconds before I start to feel really uncomfortable, "That bad?"

"No, you did really well."

"Oh, good," I reply softly and we resume our awkward staring contest. Finally I can't take it anymore, "Why are you staring at me like that, Four?"

He takes a deep breath and rubs the back of his neck, "You're divergent, aren't you?"

I take in a sharp breath, the warning from the Abnegation woman who administered my aptitude test blares in my mind like a warning siren, "What does that…"

Four cuts me off sharply, "Don't play dumb. Normally I wouldn't say anything on day one, but you're…" He pauses, trying to think of how to word his next statement I imagine, "Your situation is particularly dangerous. So, I feel that I need to warn you."

I swallow hard, "Warn me about what?"

"Eric," He says bluntly.

I scoff much more loudly and indignantly than I meant to. "Eric?" I ask incredulously, "What about Eric?"

"I know," He shifts uncomfortably, "I know that you two are together." My eyes feel like they triple in size and I know that I have paled, after a moment he continues, "Don't look so surprised, you weren't exactly being as careful as you could have been. Plus, I work in the control room, so I have seen things on the cameras when you guys thought no one was watching."

I put my head in my hands, partially to hide the fact that I am blushing, "Am I in trouble?"

He sighs, "The fact that you are with him isn't what concerns me; I don't think you would sleep with him to improve your ranking, you're not that sort of person. What concerns me is Eric himself."

"What is that supposed to mean?" I ask, suddenly furious. I take a deep breath and try to control the venom in my voice, "Listen Four, I appreciate your concern, but I have known Eric since before I was old enough to walk. I know him, I trust him."

Four chuckles, "I'm sure you do," He pauses, in an instant he is deadly serious, "You don't understand. Whoever he was before, he is a leader now and as a leader he has done and is expected to do things."

"I'm not stupid, I know being a leader has made him feel like he has to act tough and, frankly, like a jerk so that people will take him…."

Again Four cuts me off, "That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?" I growl back, I am so angry now that I can feel tears starting to burn behind my eyes.

"He's killed people," Four replies matter-of-factly.

"Why would…"

"Why would he kill someone? Because they were divergent, and divergents threaten the system," He spits bitterly. I hear myself ask how he knows this, but it sounds distant, like the words don't actually belong to me. "The man that was our instructor, his name was Amar. He was divergent, like you. He was happy, loved his job, and everyone loved him. Suddenly, one day their pulling him out of the chasm, said he jumped in himself, but they wouldn't let anyone see the body."

I feel a lone tear roll down my cheek, "And w-what makes you think it was Eric?"

Four takes a deep breath, "They announced that Eric had been chosen as the newest leader two days later." I can't stop a pathetic whimper from escaping my tightly closed lips and the tears start to flow.

As much as I don't want to believe it, my inner Erudite can't ignore the facts. The Abnegation woman from my aptitude test warned me that the leaders were threatened by the divergent, that they wanted to eliminate them. Why else would they refuse to let anyone see the body unless they didn't want anyone to know that the jump wasn't what killed him?

Four comes toward me and awkwardly pats me on the back, clearly not accustomed to crying girls. "I'm sorry," He takes a deep breath, "But I wanted you to know the truth, so you could at least keep an eye out." I nod and stand, ignoring my shaking legs and willing myself to stop crying. As my hand touches the door knob, I hear Four's voice again, "No matter what you decide to do, you won't be safe if he ever finds out that you're divergent, just be careful."

Once I have closed the door behind me, I run until I reach a dead end with no one around. When I find one, I slide down the wall and pull my knees to my chest.

My Eric would never do anything like that. The scrawny Erudite boy who would yell at kids twice his size when they made me cry; the man who held me upright as I tried to get bearings back after I got down from the zip-line yesterday. My boyfriend, the guy who told me that he loves how I never give up.

I am about to laugh off my concerns, until an image of the look he gets in his eyes sometimes flashes through my mind. All the times he threatened or offered to hurt people for me.

I try to shake it off; Four has to be wrong because Eric isn't a monster. Right?

**Dun dun dun! What lies in store for Eribby? Tune in next time!**

**Sorry, anyway I am working on a rough draft of the fear landscape chapter right now (that's how much farther ahead I am in writing than I am editing) but I'm still not happy with a couple of the fears I came up with. So, if there are any you really want to see, let me know. **

**Don't forget to review and make me smile. Happy me = faster typing fingers :p**


	14. Chapter 13

**Hello again my lovely followers! So I had an absolutely horrid day today; I am still recovering from being so sick and then today was my first day at a new job and I was late because it was mid-blizzard and my car wouldn't start. UGH! Hope your day was better than mine and remember that you can make my day just a bit better by reviewing.**

**Laura013**** – 30****th**** review! I was going for dramatic, so I guess I succeeded ;p**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – I creeped myself out a bit writing that fear, but then again when I write sad scenes I cry and I smile uncontrollably when I write fluff... so typical me.  
**

**Still don't own the Divergent world or Eric, le sigh.**

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Eric's POV**

I am standing at the base of the chasm path, leaning against the damp rock while I wait for Gabby. What could be taking her so long? I left her a note clearly telling her to meet me here after lights out, around eleven.

I glance at my watch for what must be the millionth time. It's nearly midnight which means she should have been here almost an hour ago. I wait for another fifteen minutes before I decide that she isn't coming and I head back to my apartment.

I try to tell myself that she is fine; she probably just had trouble sneaking out tonight. Maybe one of her friends caught her sneaking out and she had to go back to bed so they wouldn't get suspicious.

I climb in to bed and try to go to sleep, but a mixture of anger and worry keeps me from falling asleep. At one o'clock I finally can't take it anymore, I get up and walk across the complex to her room. I push the door open as silently as I possibly can and tiptoe close enough to check her bunk. There she is, asleep and blissfully unaware of the panic she put me through.

On my way back to my apartment I try to convince myself that she didn't get my note or that she had a good reason for standing me up, but there a nagging feeling in the back of my mind telling me that something is wrong.

The next morning when I walk into the cafeteria to get breakfast I immediately spot Gabby at a table with her friends. Her eyes are puffy like she has been crying and when she sees me, instead of letting her eyes meet mine and smiling like usual, she refuses to meet my stare and suddenly seems to find her plate fascinating.

That's it, something is definitely wrong, and if she won't talk to me of her own accord, I will have to make sure she doesn't have a choice.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

When the door to the simulation room opens I pause my work on the computer and lean back in the chair. When Gabby notices me sitting in the computer chair, instead of Four, her eyes widen and for a second I think she is going to turn around and leave.

After a moment she comes the rest of the way in and lets the door click shut behind her. "Where's Four?" She asks nervously.

I sigh, "I offered to take over the afternoon group of simulations, to give Four a break." Gabby raises an eyebrow at me as her way of telling me to cut the crap, "Well when my girlfriend wouldn't talk to me, or make eye contact with me for that matter, and blew me off last night, I had to take drastic measures."

She walks over to the metal dentist's chair and sinks into it like her body is suddenly made of led. She pulls her legs up and hugs them to her chest. After a moment she sighs, "I needed some time to think."

"Time to think about what?" I ask incredulously.

She bites her lip, "Nothing, I'm fine. Just the simulation yesterday was really hard on me. Can we please get this over with?"

I stare at her for a moment, my first instinct is to keep pushing the issue, but I don't want her to shut me out again. I nod and grab the syringe; I lean in to inject the side of her neck, but I stop a couple inches away, "You're the last one today, promise me we can talk after this." After a moment she nods and I stick the needle into her soft flesh. She starts breathing more heavily and squeeze her shoulder lightly, "Be brave, Gidg." I walk over to the computer and sit down, connecting myself to the simulation so I can see what's going on.

_I watch as Gabby wakes up in a chair identical to the one her unconscious body is currently slumped in. She stands and looks around the room, she is alone and the lights are flickering. Her breathing starts to become more labored as she scans the room, "Eric?" _

_A noise from behind the door causes her to jump. At first she freezes, but then she decides to go check it out. She opens the door and creeps down the hall. The noise comes again, but without the door to muffle it this time. The person making the noise is clearly in a lot of pain. _

_When she gets to the door to the training room she gently pushes it open, immediately recoiling at what she sees inside. It isn't until she finally steps through the door that I am able to see what has her attention. I see myself standing over the broken and bruised body of a man; he is curled up on the floor facing away from Gabby. I doubt that he is important, the sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach tells me that I am the part of the fear she is focused on. _

"_Eric?" She calls, her voice quivering nervously, but the other me doesn't seem to hear her. _

_I-he kicks the man on the floor in the in the ribs and the man moans in pain. He chuckles sadistically, "Come on, admit it freak, and we can finally be done here."_

"_Fine," The man on the floor moans, "I'm divergent." _

_Simulation me nods and silently walks over to a table in the corner; he retrieves a gun and stalks back over to the man on the floor, "Well that's unfortunate." He raises the gun and fires it at the man's head; the man on the floor goes limp. _

_Gabby screams before falling to her knees and sobbing loudly. She gasps for air between gut wrenching cries before she very abruptly goes silent. Simulation me finally turns to face her as a small hysterical laugh escapes her mouth. _

"_What's so funny?" He sneers. _

"_This isn't real," She replies as she wipes away tears, "This is a simulation." _

Just like that, the simulation is over. I sit there for a moment, completely stunned. I stand up quickly but the wires are still attached and tug at my skin, I rip them off and slam them down on the table. I take a deep breath and pinch the bridge of my nose.

I let out a loud strangled yell and punch the wall as hard as I can. Pain radiates through my hand and I feel something wet coating my knuckles. I open my eyes and examine my hand, my knuckles are split and bleeding, but at the moment I don't care.

I turn and find Gabby staring at me, "Eric, I…"

I hold up my uninjured hand to silence her, something has just occurred to me. "Dang it, Gabby!" I yell and quickly rush to the door, I stop with my hand on the knob, "Don't you dare leave, I'll be right back."

I rush through the complex, not letting anything stop me until I get to the control room. I find the computer that I need, thankfully it's currently unused. I scroll through the files until I find the one I need and quickly delete it as well as any backup files and empty any trash files. Once I am satisfied that the recording is gone I hurry back to where I left my girlfriend.

When I walk into the room she is pacing back and forth across the length of the room. She looks at me curiously, "Eric, I-I didn't mean for that to happen."

I chuckle bitterly, "I'm not stupid, I know you can't control what fears come out during these simulations." I pause, taking a deep breath, "What I am more concerned with is why you're afraid of me."

"I'm div-"She pauses abruptly, unable to get the word out.

"Divergent," I supply quietly, "Yeah, I got that."

"Well, I- you're a leader, and several people have warned me about how dangerous it is to be di-what I am, and," She pauses and takes a deep breath.

"Yes," I say, immediately regretting how sharp my tone is, "But you know me, you know how much I care about you, and you didn't start acting like this until yesterday. What changed?"

She doesn't answer, just stares at her shoes like they hold all the answers. "It was Four," I finally continue, unable to stop my voice from raising, "He has always blamed me for Amar's death." She still won't say anything, now my whole body is shaking, "Will you please say something Gabby!"

"Stop yelling at me!" She finally looks up and her face is streaked with tears.

I take a deep breath and cross the room; I place a hand on the side of her face and softly start wiping away tears with my thumb, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be yelling at you." I take a deep breath and back away, "You don't have to worry about the recording, I deleted it. I'll say that I messed something up so you won't get in trouble, but you'll have to redo this session with Four later."

"Thank you," She whispers softly.

I lean forward and press my lips to her cheek, "You know I would do anything for you, Gabriella." I take a couple steps back, "I want you to trust me, but I can't force you to." She looks up at me with wide, sad eyes and I continue, " I'll back off and give you some time to think because this thing between is won't work if we don't trust each other."

I pause, softly tapping my uninjured knuckles on the metal chair, "But to make sure you have all the facts," I take a step forward and gently grab her chin, tilting her head up so that she is looking into my eyes, "You've always been able to read me like a book, I can never lie to you, whether I want to or not." She nods lightly and I continue, "I promise you that I had nothing to do with what happened to my instructor, I didn't kill him." I take step back and let her go, I start to leave but pause at the door, "You know where to find me when you decide whether you can trust me or not."

With that I leave the room, it takes every ounce of self-control not to run back into the room when I hear her collapse back into the chair crying.

**What will happen to Gabric? or Eribby, whichever you prefer… Tune in again tomorrow night! *role end credits***

**Also, props to Olivia-Ivy for giving me the suggestion for that fear, hope you liked what I did with it.**


	15. Chapter 14

**Hello again everyone! Not much to report today, so I guess we'll just get down to it.**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – I'm glad you liked it; it was a really good idea. And don't worry about Gidgic too much…**

**Laura013**** – It makes me feel good when I can elicit an emotional response from my readers, but that also made me feel really guilty.**

**EverRose808**** – Ooh, I like both of those! I need to have some sort of poll or something because I am too indecisive to pick one. Or someone needs to pick one for me. lol**

**I don't own any thing accept my OCs and my plot ideas.**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Gabby's POV**

I wake up the next morning feeling numb. After my fight with Eric late yesterday afternoon I came back to the dorm and crawled into bed. I have barely left my bunk since and have ventured no further than the bathroom.

At some point the positive side of me, the side that believes in Eric no matter what and still sees him as the scrawny boy in blue with thick black rimmed glasses, met with the negative side that is responsible for my fears and doubts. Like a high pressure system and a low pressure system colliding violently. The resulting storm of emotions left me a wreck and, I'm fairly certain, my fellow transfers questioning my mental stability.

Part of me wants to hate Four for trying to turn me against Eric, but part of me feels like I should thank him. A portion of me wants to run to Eric's room, fall at his feet, and beg for forgiveness for ever doubting him. Another bit of me wonders if I will ever honestly be able to trust him again.

I stare up at the ceiling for a long time. The mattress feels especially uncomfortable this morning, but I can't bring myself to care enough to move. I am about to go back to sleep when Jessica's head appears next to mine, she must be standing on the head of Jeff's bed.

"Come on, time to get up," She says, not leaving any room for argument. If I where any less numb I might smile at her; this is one of the reasons I love having Jessica as a friend. Most girls would try and coddle me, ask if I was okay, or if I wanted to talk about it. But not Jessica, she is going to force me to get up and move on with training. She's there if I need to talk too, but I need her to be tough now and she knows it. "I'm not leaving until you get up," She adds, crossing her arms over her chest.

I finally sit up, feeling more beat up than the morning after my fight with Michael. She watches me with concerned eyes but doesn't comment. When my feet finally hit the floor she hands me a stack of clean clothes and marches me to the showers.

I emerge from the bathroom twenty minutes, my curls heavy with moisture and still dripping slightly. I take a deep breath; I have to admit that taking a shower did make me feel at least a little better. I find Jess and we walk to the cafeteria together. I don't feel like eating, but she makes me take something, so I end up with an apple and a muffin.

I sit down at the table in my usual spot, next to Jeff and across from Jessica, and listen to the three of them talk. I nibble at the apple until it is gone, but I don't fight Jeff when he asks if I plan to eat the muffin. After breakfast, Carl and I have simulations during the morning since we both went later in the day yesterday.

I walk with Carl to the hallway outside of the simulation room and we sit side by side, waiting in silence. After a while he nudges me awkwardly, "Is… did something happen between you and you-know-who?"

I sigh, I would have expected myself to cry when someone asked me about him, but I'm fairly certain at this point that I have run out of tears. I finally just settle for nodding at him, he awkwardly puts an arm around my shoulders and looks around the room at anything but me.

After a moment I can't help but laugh softly, "You're really bad at this."

He smiles back at me, "I got you to laugh though, so that's got to count for something."

Four opens the door and calls my name, I disentangle myself from Carl and follow Four into the room I have come to hate for more than just the nightmares lurking inside.

**xxxxxxxxxxx**

When I am finished with my fear simulation for the day I decide to go for a walk. I wander around aimlessly until I find myself standing next to the chasm. I stare vacantly at the rushing waters below, I allow myself to get lost in watching the ever-changing surface of the river.

I jump when I feel a hand on my arm, I turn around quickly to find Meghan standing behind me, "God you're jumpy today."

"Sorry," I reply absently.

"Okay, what's wrong with you?" She asks, grabbing my elbow and dragging me to a deserted corner. "Are simulations getting to you that badly?"

I shake my head no and she thinks for a moment before smacking my arm, "Did Eric do something? Try to pressure you to do something you weren't ready for?" She guesses.

"No, no nothing like that," I pause, but finally decide that since she knows about 'us' I might as well be at least sort of honest, "We got in a big fight."

She considers this for a moment, "Okay, come with me."

She stands up, again grabbing me and pulling me along behind her. She finally stops at a door in the section of the compound that contains the apartments and bangs on it loudly while tapping her foot impatiently. Eventually the door opens, revealing a shirtless and half asleep Zeke.

He raises an eyebrow at the two of us, before leaning on the door frame and yawning widely, "How can I help you ladies?"

"Are you doing anything right now?" Meghan asks, getting right to the point.

"Well, I was sleeping," He replies, stifling another yawn, "I had the night shift."

"Yeah, I meant anything important," She pauses, thinking for a moment, "Since you're free, get the supplies for an emergency stress relief session and meet us at the train at two."

Zeke nods, a wide smile suddenly filling his handsome face. With that my captor is off, dragging me with her around the complex to give a series of people I recognize from zip-lining a series of similarly vague instructions. Once we have finished, it is noon and Meghan pulls me to the cafeteria where we eat lunch. As soon as I am done she drags me to her apartment and I sit on her couch, eventually taking a nap while she changes and gets things ready.

When it is time to go, Meghan wakes me up and quickly ushers me out the door, "Let's go kid."

When we get to the train I see a small group of heavily armed Dauntless waiting for us. I am beginning to get concerned until Zeke walks over to hand me a gun and a pack of paintballs, "You ready?"

I look from him to Meghan wide eyed, "I'd be more ready if I knew what was going on."

They share a conspiratorial smile, but before either of them can answer we hear the sound of the train approaching. I run after my two older friends and climb into the car with a little assistance from Zeke. I sit down between them and Meghan finally leans over to explain what is going on.

"So first of all, us including you in this little ritual proves two things," She begins.

"First, that we have enough faith that you are going to make it through initiation that we are including you in something that most transfers don't know about," Zeke puts in. He flashes me a big smile before continuing, "And we like you enough to let you in on our little game."

"Okay," I look between them, still confused.

"It's a long standing tradition among young Dauntless members," Meghan begins with a smirk, "At least once a year, or whenever one of us is having a really bad day, we go 'hunting'."

"Hunting?" I ask.

"We hide in the buildings that the Dauntless kids have to walk by to get to the train when they leave school," Zeke says with a smile, "And when they start to walk home we ambush them with paintball guns."

I must look really confused because Meghan laughs, "It's tradition, it keeps the kids on their toes, teaches you to always be alert, and it's fun for us." I nod, about to ask a question when one of the other members signal that it is time to get off.

Meghan and I end up hiding together. Once she is satisfied with our location and we have a good line of sight she leans close to me and whispers, "Trust me, this always makes me feel better." She starts to move away but stops and adds, "But watch out for Zeke's brother, if he gets a gun he's not afraid to use it."

I nod and look back around the corner to where they will be walking by. A group of about ten younger people in black, ages ranging from eight to fifteen come into view. The boy leading the group stops suddenly, holding up a hand to halt the others, his skin tone is similar to Zeke's and he is about the right age to be his brother.

The boy smiles, "I know you're out there Zeke!"

Suddenly, a lone popping sound fills the air just before an explosion of red paint splatter across the girl standing to the boy's right. All the others scream and scatter, just like that the street descends into chaos. Paint is flying every which way, older kids are trying to wrestle guns away from members and younger kids are hiding. I would expect the kids to be mad or crying, but they must be used to this game because almost everyone involved is smiling. The smile becomes infectious and I can't stop it from reaching my own features. I decide to take Meghan's advice, I let myself forget about life for a while and just enjoy being Dauntless.

I run around a corner and climb through an open window, leaning against the wall to catch my breath. At some point, one of the members shot another member and the game descended into total anarchy; anyone is fair game now. I have lost track of how long we have been out here; for the first time since before stage two started my head is completely clear, all I can focus on the game. I can see why Meghan brought me now.

Someone took the younger kids home about an hour ago, now it's just the kids who are in their teens and can hold their own now out here with us. I am about to climb back out when I catch sight of a familiar figure climbing in through the same window I did.

I raise my gun and sneak up behind him, "Uriah, right?"

He turns around slowly, raising his arms, "Yeah." He studies me for a moment, "You don't have to shoot me you know."

I raise an eyebrow, "What are you proposing?"

"I came in here to wait to ambush Zeke," He says with a smile, "I'm proposing an alliance."

I consider this for a moment, before giving him a big smile, "I'm Gabby by the way."

Five minutes later, I watch as Uriah stumbles out of the window, seemingly unaware that Zeke is watching. Zeke jumps out, gun raised, "Of come on Uri, you know better than to let your guard down."

"Yeah," Uriah says, leisurely raising his hands, "I do."

I step out of the shadows and quickly shoot Zeke in the back, unable to contain a laugh of triumph. I walk forward and high-five my co-conspirator, right before I feel the sting of a paintball hitting my side. I turn to find Shauna standing on the other side of the alleyway, a smirk plastered on her face.

When we finally get back on the train to go home it is dark and the night air is beginning to turn cold. I look myself over; I am covered in so much paint that I can no longer see my clothes. I have paint in my hair and it is smeared on my face and splattered on most of my exposed skin. I am exhausted, my lungs burn from all the running and shouting.

I had an amazing time but the entire afternoon there was a voice in the back of my head telling me that it would have been better if I had shared it with Eric. I lean my head back and the image of his face when he left yesterday flashes up in my mind unbidden.

I know in my heart that I believe him when he said he didn't have anything to do with Amar's murder. I know that I love Eric and I can honestly say that I trust him with my life. I suddenly feel like such an idiot for letting Four scare me into thinking that Eric would do something that horrible. I put my head in my hands, I feel terrible for not even talking to him before I decide that he must be guilty.

As soon as we get back I say goodbye to my friends and run through the complex to Eric's door. I pause when I get there though, for a moment I just stand with my hand poised to knock, worrying that it is too late and that he won't accept my apology. I take a deep breath and rap my knuckles on the door softly; I refuse to let my pride stop me from doing what I know I need to.

He opens the door, his hair wet, a towel is still hanging over his shoulder and he is only wearing a pair of sweat pants. He looks surprised to see me, "Gabby, what happened to you?"

I wipe at the paint on my cheek self-consciously, "That doesn't matter."

"Okay," He says, raising an eyebrow at me curiously.

"I came here because I realized something today," I take a deep breath before blurting out the next sentence before I can stop myself, "I love you, Eric." I take a couple of shallow breaths and hold a hand up to stop him when he tries to speak, "Let me get this out first. I'm sorry; I should have given you a chance to tell me your side of the story before I judged what Four told me. I shouldn't have let other people convince me not to trust my instincts, I should have…"

"Gabby," He says loudly, interrupting my rant.

By this point I am crying, but I wipe the tears away quickly with the back of my hand. He is looking at me so seriously, the pessimistic voice in the back of my mind insists that he is about to tell me that we are done. My voice comes out as little more than a pathetic whisper, "Yeah?"

He answers me by crashing his lips into mine and we stand there in each others arms in the middle of the hallway, in that moment neither of us care who sees. When he finally pulls away I can only imagine how I must look. I feel like I am smiling like an idiot but I'm still crying, tears of relief not sadness now though. He watches me for a moment before he shoots a big goofy smile back at me.

He pulls me into his apartment and pins me against the door as he closes it, "I love you too." With those words he covers my mouth with his again and everything else disappears. The only people who exist are Eric and I, and I'm okay with that.

**Well, what did you think? Reunion too rushed or just right? Let me know! Tune in again tomorrow night for more!**

**Also, today sort of ended up being Uriah day for my account. He was in this chapter and I came up with an idea for a Uriah one-shot yesterday and wrote it while I was on my lunch break at work. I posted it this morning, check it out if you want.**


	16. Chapter 15

**Hello again everyone! Ok so this is a bit late, at least in my time zone this is going up early Thursday morning instead of Wednesday night. Today I was so busy I barely had time to breathe because it's my last day off until Sunday, so I had to get EVERYTHING done today. (Normally I wouldn't have Sunday off either but they gave everyone the day off since our state's team is in the super bowl lol. I guess that little fact gives you a 50/50 chance of guessing where I live… Well, what state anyway). **

**As always, you have the power to make my day by reviewing and letting me know what you think!**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – That arrangement works for me! ;p**

**DauntlessShadowhunterChick**** – Why thank you!**

**Laura013**** – Good to hear that everyone liked the Gidgic reunion.**

**I don't own Eric or Divergent.**

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Gabby's POV**

_I open my eyes, the metal dentist's chair and Four gone, and I am back in the maze of mirrors from capture the flag. "Hello?" I ask out of habit, but something tells me I am alone. _

_I start to walk toward where I know the exit should be; I have a good memory so it wasn't hard to memorize the maze layout. I turn a corner expecting to be faced with the part of the maze with loud sections of flooring that moved back when this building was used, but instead I am back where I started. _

_My heart starts to beat faster, "That was weird," I whisper softly. I pause for a moment before setting out on a second attempt to reach the exit, but again I end up in the wrong section of the maze. I feel myself begin to panic, I'm starting to hyperventilate. I run through the maze in the direction that my brain insists will hold the exit but the hallways continually twist and change. The realization that there is no way out hits me like a load of bricks. I am on the verge of tears when the familiar, calming realization that I am in a simulation hits me._

_My first instinct now that I realize where I am is to calm myself down quickly to get away from this nightmarish maze, but Eric's voice in my mind reminds me not to calm down too quickly. Per Eric's coaching, I fumble around for a little while longer before slumping into a corner and rocking back and forth like a lost child. When I am sure that I have spent long enough in the simulation, I close my eyes and force myself to calm down. _

When I finally open my eyes to see that I am back in the simulation room, I breathe a sigh of relief. That was my last fear simulation, I had to come in this afternoon and secretly make up the one that Eric had to delete so that I would have the same number as everyone else.

I look over at Four, he is studying me curiously, "You did great, what's wrong?"

"That one was weird," I say slowly, "I'm not afraid of that maze, or any maze, I think I would know if I was."

He chuckles, "Your fears are actually rarely as simple as they appear to be, they usually represent something deeper that your subconscious fears."

I nod, "That makes sense." I stand and start to leave but I pause at the door, "So rankings for stage two are announced tonight?"

Four nods in response, busily typing away at the computer, probably trying to get my average calculated in time. I open the door and find Eric leaning against the opposite side of the hallway. I close the door softly, crossing the distance between us and smiling widely up at him as he pulls me into his arms. I rest my head on his chest and he pulls me in as tightly as he can.

"Your heart is still beating really fast, must have been a bad one," He says softly into my hair.

I pull back and smile, "That might not be entirely because of the simulation." He raises an eyebrow and I wink at him. He kisses me and it takes everything in my power to pull away, "I have to go."

He groans, "Why?"

I smile at him, "Because I had a mini breakdown, then I disappeared for nearly twenty-four hours between Meghan and Zeke kidnapping me and when you and I… made up," at this he smirks and kisses the side of my neck. I let my head roll back but after a moment I pull away again, "And then I have spent almost every second of the last two days that I wasn't sleeping or in a simulation with you. If I bail on plans with my friends again today I'm fairly certain that Jessica is going to kill me."

"Fine," He sighs dramatically, "What are you guys doing?"

"Well, I promised Jess that I would go with her tonight to get her nose pierced," I reply before excitedly adding, "And I was planning on getting mine done too." I watch his reaction carefully to see if he likes the idea, not that it would really stop me though. He can't exactly talk when it comes to the whole facial piercing debate.

He smirks and kisses the side of my nose before replying, "Good, maybe that will take some of the attention off of my face next time we run into your parents."

I laugh before reaching up trailing my thumb over the rings dotting his eyebrow, "I don't know, I'd have a long way to go to catch up to you, and I don't plan on doing that."

He nods, "Good."

I stand up on my tiptoes and peck him on the cheek, "I'll see you later, you going to be there to announce stage two rankings?" He nods and I leave to go find Jessica.

When I find her she is sitting on Jeff's bunk waiting for me and staring vacantly at the wall. We have all been doing that recently, a side effect of fear simulations. I have escaped slightly less scathed than the others because I have been so distract with Eric, but I have still been having awful nightmares.

"You ready?" I ask when I am close enough.

She snaps out of her daze and turns to me with a smile that is slightly forced at first, "Yes!" She studies me silently for a moment, I raise an eyebrow at her and she smirks before replying sarcastically, "Oh, I was just waiting to see if you were going to suddenly remember something that meant you had to ditch me, again."

"Ha ha," I say pushing her lightly on the shoulder, "No, for the remainder of the evening, I am all yours."

She smiles and grabs my arm, "Let's go before one of us changes our mind."

We walk into the shop next to the tattoo parlor where the guy that does piercings works. Jess talked me into going first on the way here so I get right to explaining what I want to the older boy. As he gets things ready I can't help observing that his face is more metal than flesh at this point, I make a mental not to make Eric promise to stop before he gets to that point later. When it is all over I examine myself in the mirror, I have a blue crystal stud that matches my hair in the side of my nose.

"I love it," Jessica voices my feelings from her position in the chair as she looks at herself in the hand mirror. She opted to get a black septum ring, I wouldn't have been able to pull it off but on her it looks amazing.

Once we are both finished, we walk back to the dorm, when we get there the three guys are crowded around Eric. There are no more cuts until after the final test; these rankings are just a "progress report". As soon as Eric steps aside I scan the list:

Jeff

Gabby

Carl

Jessica

Michael

My ranking doesn't really surprise me, I knew that I would move up because of my divergence, but Eric specifically coached me to not let my times get too low to keep suspicion away. It kills my competitive side but it is better if I'm not first. Not only is hiding my divergence a factor, but as soon as initiation is over Eric and I can stop sneaking around. If I am not ranked first at the end of initiation people will be less suspicious that I only did well because we were together.

Jessica congratulates me but I can tell she is worried about how low her ranking is. I hug her, "Don't worry; I'm sure it will all be okay."

She nods halfheartedly before turning to congratulate Carl and Jeff. I look over at Michael; he is standing alone off to the side of our group, his hands tucked firmly in his pockets as he stares intently at the board.

I walk over to him and gently nudge his shoulder, "Don't worry big guy."

He smiles at me but the smile doesn't reach his eyes. He looks down again and when he looks back up he is deadly serious, "I think I made a big mistake when I transferred." He whispers the words so quietly that I can just barely hear him, "I only made it as far as I did because of my size."

Part of me wants to argue with him and tell him that he's wrong, but I don't want to patronize him. After a moment he half smiles at me again and walks out of the dorm. For a moment I worry that he will do something stupid and consider running after him, but I quickly shake the thought off and turn back to my friends.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Jessica wakes me the next morning to let me know that she and Carl are going to get breakfast. I lay there for as long as I can, until I know that I know that I have to get up now if I want to have enough time to shower. As soon as I do climb down I feel that something is wrong, it takes me a moment to realize why. Michael's bed has been stripped and his things are gone.

Jeff walks into the room freshly showered a few minutes later, "Where is Michael?"

He looks at me sadly, "I guess he packed his stuff in the night while we were all asleep, told Four he would just quit now and save everyone the trouble."

I stare at him for a moment, completely shocked by this revelation. A small part of me feels awful now for not going after him last night, but the larger part of me feels angry. Angry that he would just give up like that, but part of my fury is felt on others behalf. I remember how hard Amanda and Alisha tried, even though they were both ill-suited for Dauntless, and then how crushed they were when they finally got cut. Then someone like Michael, who took one of the spots they could have had, just gives it up because he decides it's too hard. My anger must be evident because Jeff studies me cautiously, like I am a wild animal he has just unintentionally provoked.

"Coward," I spit the word out like a curse before grabbing my clothes and heading to the showers.

**Shorter filler chapter, nothing too exciting happening, but still let me know what you thought. Tune in again tomorrow night for more! (Well, tonight if we are being technical…)**


	17. Chapter 16

**Hello again everyone! You'll be happy to know that I am alive, despite having to dig my car out of the snow at 10p.m. when I got off of work. (It wasn't snowing or even that cold when I got to work, I didn't bring gloves and almost didn't take a big coat) So needless to say I am still waiting for feeling to fully return in my fingers…**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – I didn't end up spending too much time on the demonstrations, but I hope you like what I did. ;p**

**vreg53h**** (Chap 9) – Four's team won the year that he was an initiate and the year that Tris was an initiate. Veronica never specifies who won the year in between. In fact, in the book Marlene asks where Four's team put the flag the year (singular) that his team won.**

**I don't own Divergent or Eric.**

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Eric's POV**

The next morning at breakfast I can tell something is wrong from Gabby's body language, she is angry. The others seem to be giving her space but are also rather sullen.

I pause at a table where some of the people, including Four, from my initiate class are sitting. "Something wrong with the transfers?" I ask my co-trainer.

"Michael quit last night," He replies simply, no hint of his feelings on the matter in his voice, "He decided that he wasn't going to make it so he might as well just quit."

I understand Gabby's mood now, especially after I saw her trying to chear the huge kid up last night. "Coward," I spit before heading toward a mostly empty table in the corner.

After breakfast, Four leads the initiates up the steep path that leads up the side of the pit to the pyre to show them the fear landscape room. I start to follow them but Max grabs my shoulder, "I need to see you in my office."

If Max doesn't want to talk here it must have something to do with Jeanine. I follow him to the door of his office, but he stops there and doesn't follow me in, that definitely isn't a good sign. I walk through the door and Max pulls it shut softly behind me. I take a deep breath when I see who is seated at my fellow leader's desk.

"Eric, it's good to see you again," Jeanine says without looking up from the file she has in her hands.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" I ask, doing my best to keep the sarcasm from leaking into my voice.

"I came for a progress report on the divergent," She replies simply, finally looking up at me with her usual predatory gaze.

I shrug my shoulders uninterestedly, "I haven't confirmed any. From what I understand most divergent show exceptional aptitude for the fear simulations but I didn't come across anyone that stands out from the pack enough to warrant suspicion." I try my best to breathe normally, trying to convince myself that Jeanine isn't a mind reader and that she can't tell that I am lying.

"So I see," she replies as she flashes a copy of the stage two rankings for both the transfers and Dauntless-born at me. She lets that paper fall, "The thing that interested me, though, was an incident involving the recording of one of the transfer's simulations." She closes the file and leans forward, resting her chin on her laced together fingers, "Do you know why I found that so interesting?"

I swallow hard, "I can't say I do."

"It's because, upon further inspection, the young lady whose simulation didn't get recorded correctly happens to be the girl in these photographs that we discussed last time," Her eyes shine like a wild animal about to pounce. She opens a second folder, "The most interesting part is that last time I told you to make sure that she didn't get in the way, and," She tosses a picture over the desk toward me, "It appears that you've been spending even more time with her since."

The picture is of Gabby and I in the hallway the night when we made up after our fight. I set the picture back gently on the table, "I did screw up one of her simulations," I admit, the best lies are partially based on truth. I take a deep breath.

She studies me skeptically for a moment before leaning back in her chair, "You have no reason to suspect that she is divergent?"

"No," I say it with as much determination and finality as I possibly can.

She continues to study me intently for a moment before nodding, "Alright, you may go then."

**xxxxxxxxxxx**

"How many did you have?" Gabby asks softly. She is curled up next to me on the net, fiddling absently with the hem of my shirt.

We met here once the compound was quiet and almost everyone else went to sleep. I twist one of her curls around my finger, "Twelve."

"Is that good?" She asks through a stifled yawn.

"Most people have between ten and fifteen fears in their landscape, so it's average, but my time was really good," I reply, feeling like I need to brag a little in front of my girlfriend.

She laughs and sits up on her knees, "And you're so humble too." She leans down and kisses my before stretching her arms as long as she can make them, "I am really tired, babe."

I nod and help her down from the net. I hesitate to let go of her arm once I have helped her down, ever since my conversation with Jeanine this morning I don't feel like she is safe unless my hands are on her, "Come back to my place?"

She smiles at me, "I'm supposed to be sleeping in the dorm."

I growl, I don't want to scare her by telling her that I am worried for her safety, but I know that I won't sleep tonight unless she is in my arms. "There are only three nights left before you move out of there anyway, who cares."

She bites her lip, "Fine."

I smile at her and kiss the side of her neck, "Thank you." She studies me curiously for a moment before grabbing my hand and dragging me back to my apartment.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

The next morning I wake up alone in my bed, I hear something clang to the ground in the other room and quickly scramble to my feet. I hurry out into the kitchen, Gabby is standing on the tips of her toes trying to reach something on a top shelf.

I sneak up behind her, sandwiching her between my body and the counter. I scoot the box closer so she can reach it before leaning down to kiss the side of her neck. She grabs the box and turns around in my arms so that she is facing me, "Good morning."

"Morning, Gidget," I whisper and lean in to claim her lips. She pulls back and slaps me on the chest, I flinch back dramatically, "What was that for?"

"You are such a man; your fridge is 95% alcohol and the only breakfast food related item I could find was a carton of eggs that had clearly seen better days."

I shrug, "I always eat in the pit."

She makes a face, "I just figured if I made breakfast here we could actually eat together for once."

I kiss her forehead, "Two more days and we don't have to hide anymore, and I promise to keep the fridge better stocked from now on."

"Good," She says with a smirk. We get ready and walk together most of the way, only splitting up once we reach the pit. I decide to go with Four and Lauren to monitor fear landscapes today, mostly so I can keep an eye on Gabby.

Lauren starts off by listing her fears from last year and letting the initiates know that they will each be randomly assigned one of her fears so that they can see what it is like. They won't get to go through their own landscapes until tomorrow during the final test.

I don't have to worry about Gabby as much during this part, everyone is aware during their fear landscape. I settle in to a chair and watch the initiates with Four since today only Lauren will actually be hooked up to the computer.

I watch Justin run in circles around the small room trying to flick off imaginary spiders. Jeff sits on the floor, holding his leg, trying to stop the uncontrollable bleeding. Jessica fights off faceless kidnapers, she comes out of the room crying. Gabby gets public humiliation, I have no idea what happened during her simulation but afterward she won't make eye contact with me for a while and every time Lauren looks at me for the rest of the day she starts laughing. I make a mental note to ask her about it tonight.

That night as I stare up at the ceiling and listen to a sleeping Gabby's even breathing, I find myself smiling. After tomorrow Gabby will officially be a Dauntless member and we won't have to hide our relationship anymore since I will no longer be one of her instructors. Twenty-four hours left and we can finally be together without all the lies and secrets.

**I know, another comparatively short and fairly uneventful chapter. Most of my energy has gone into focusing on the next three chapters. I thought about using Eric for the fear landscape examples, but then I decided that I would save that for another idea I have.**

**Tune in again tomorrow night for Gabby's fear landscape!**


	18. Chapter 17

**Hello again everyone! So I am really excited for this chapter, so let's just get down to it. Make my day by reviewing! Thank you to ****Olivia-Ivy**** for being my sole reviewer last chapter, I'm glad to hear that you like the Gidgic moments. (also, 40th review!)  
**

**I don't own Divergent.**

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Gabby's POV**

I wake the morning of the Dauntless initiation ceremony to the sound of someone banging on Eric's door. I sit up but quickly mourn the loss of warmth as the covers fall to my lap. I pull the blankets up and clutch them to my chest with one hand while shaking Eric with the other. "Eric," I whisper as I continue to shake him, "Eric!"

He sits up suddenly, "What-what's wrong?"

I am about to answer him when the banging picks up again. Eric climbs from the bed, groggily rubbing his eyes as he pads out into the living room to answer the apartment door. From where I sit on the bed, I can see Eric open the door a crack and poke just his head out to talk to the person on the other side.

I can't make out what is being said, or who is there, until Eric shouts, "Are you serious?"

I raise an eyebrow curiously, wondering what is going on. Eric assures the person that he'll be "there" as soon as possible and then shuts the door loudly. I turn to grab my sweatshirt from the floor next to my side of the bed but freeze when I happen to catch a glimpse of the clock out of the corner of my eye. I realize now why the person at the door woke us up.

I jump out of bed as Eric walks back in, "How the heck did we sleep until 11:30?" I ask as I fumble around on the floor for my jeans.

He mumbles something in reply as he brushes his teeth that sounds vaguely like, "Forgot to set the alarm."

"Yeah, I got that," I shout back, the upper half of my body under the bed as I fish around for my left shoe.

"In my," He pauses to rinse his mouth, "In my defense, you where distracting me."

I laugh and kiss him on the cheek, "You didn't complain last night."

"I'm going to be really busy today, but I should be able to steel a little time between the last fear landscape and dinner when we announce the final rankings," He says as he hunts through a pile of clothes in the corner for something, "Meet me at the net?"

"It's a date," I reply just as I notice his best black shirt hanging out of a drawer. I grab it and dangle it off of my index finger in front of his face, "Looking for this?"

He takes the shirt and tosses it onto his bed before standing up to pull me into his arms. He kisses me with a hunger that we both know we don't have the time for right now. He finally pulls away and leans his forehead against mine, "You better go, but I'll be watching when you go through your landscape later." I nod and he continues, "Just remember to be brave; I know you'll do great."

I smile and kiss him quickly before leaning my forehead back against his, "I love you."

He smirks, "I never get tired of that." He kisses me again, "I love you too."

As much as I don't want to, I finally peel myself out of his arms and leave the apartment. When I get out into the hall, I immediately feel like I've walked into an entirely different world. The usually empty hallways are busy with activity, there are people everywhere, and despite the relatively early hour most of them are already drunk or at least on their way there.

I hurry to the dorm and find Jeff in his bed, fully dressed and staring up at the bottom of my bunk. When I walk in he looks up.

"She lives!" He shouts, "I was wondering if you were going to make an appearance before we had to go up."

I am already riffling through my drawers, but I stop to lean around so I can see his face, "Yeah yeah yeah, you're hilarious Jeff." I go back to trying to decide what to wear; what does one wear to face all of their worst fears?

My thoughts are interrupted by Jeff's voice, "Are you ever going to tell me who this guy is? He must be important to you since you are with him every spare second."

"Who says it's a guy? Maybe I've been spending all my time practicing in the training room," I ask with a smirk.

Just then the door to the door open, revealing Jessica and Carl, "Oh look Carl, it's our old friend Gabby." She walks over to me and with fake a huge fake smile pulls me into a big hug, "How long has it been? Feels like a lifetime," She adds sarcastically.

"I was just trying to get our old friend to tell me who the guy is," Jeff adds, still lying with his hands behind his head.

Jess studies my for a second, "Did she try to deny that there is a guy again, even though she's mid walk of shame."

I feel the blush creep into my cheeks and I see Carl put his head down to hide the fact that he is laughing. I grab my clothes and start toward the door, but Jess blocks my path.

"Nope, you aren't skipping out on answering my questions this time," She says firmly, "Carl, guard the door."

Carl looks between me and the girl that he very obviously likes before finally walking over and standing in front of the door with his arms crossed, trying to look tough. When the other two are distracted he mouths the words sorry to me and I smirk back him.

Jessica pulls me over to sit down on the empty bed Michael used to use. "Human lies detector," She calls once the door is secure, Jeff appears next to her, staring intently at my face.

"If you refuse to tell us his name," Jeff begins, "At least answer a few general questions so that we can guess."

Jessica nods in agreement with her co-interrogator, "Have I met him?"

"Yes."

"How old is he?"

I think for a second, but I can't think of anything else to say that isn't a lie, "17."

Jessica turns to Jeff, "Okay, now we are getting somewhere! Who do we know that is 17? Four…"

"Eric was in the same initiate class," Jeff adds, "But that seems unlikely."

"Okay, I'm done," I say and start to stand up, but Jessica pushes me back down. "Come on Gabby, if you can't tell us, who can you tell?" Jeff nods and they both turn to Carl for his agreement, Carl nods but even I can tell that he is nervous.

Jeff takes a step toward him, "Because none of us know who Gabby's secret boyfriend is, right Carl?"

Carl swallows hard, "Right."

"Oh my god, Jessica, he knows," Jeff says crossing his arms.

Jessica walks quickly over to Carl, stopping just in front of him, "Carl?"

"Yes, J-Jessica?"

Jess moves so quickly that Carl has no time to react, she grabs Carl's earlobe and pulls as hard as she can. He lets out a very girly scream, which doesn't even seem to faze Jessica, "Who?"

"Ow!" He replies very emphatically.

Jessica pulls harder, "Who?"

"Ouch! Jess stop!" She just stares back at him, after a few more moments without an answer I see Jessica's grip tighten. Carl shoots me a very brief apologetic look, "Eric."

Jessica doesn't let go thought, "How long have you known?"

"Since capture the flag," He relies quickly, "I went to warn Gabby that your team was coming and they were all over each other."

"Carl!" I yell, but no one seems to hear.

Jessica finally releases her vice grip on his ear and Carl stands up straight, nursing his sore appendage. She turns on me, a look of shock, "Eric? Scary, leader of the Dauntless, Eric?"

I roll my eyes, "He isn't scary." I sigh, they know, so I might as well be honest, "We grew up together, he was sort of my best friend when we were kids."

"I thought he looked familiar when we first got here," Jess mumbles before looking back at me, "Go on."

"The morning before he chose, he showed up at my house, told me how he felt," I say, a smile spreads across my lips that I can't stop, "I didn't pick Dauntless because of him, before you get the wrong idea, but seeing him again was definitely a bonus of choosing to come here. We just sort of… picked up where we left off once I got here."

All three of them are staring at me now, I feel myself blush again. Suddenly, the door opens and Four walks in.

He looks from the three of them to me, "What's going on?"

Jeff starts to answer, but I cut him off, "It's okay, he knows."

"What?!" Jessica yells, taking a large step toward me, "You told him but you didn't tell me? I had to find it out by torturing Carl, and you TOLD him!" Carl starts to say something but one look from the furious girl standing between us shuts him up.

"Eric?" Four asks me with a raised eyebrow, I nod and he continues, "If it makes you feel any better, she didn't tell me either, it's my job as your instructor to watch you guys." He takes a deep breath before looking at me pointedly, "And I very strongly recommended she end it when I did find out."

I scoff, "And how is my love life your business?" I ask even though I know why he felt it was his concern, but I have no intention of bringing that whole can of worms up in front of my friends.

Any anger Jessica felt toward me is, at least temporarily, forgotten and she grabs my arm, "It isn't. Come on Gab, let's go get ready for lunch." I grab my clothes and we walk out of the room.

After lunch we still have some time to kill before we are supposed to be up in the glass building above the pit to take our final tests. The noise level in the pit is deafening, what with all of the drunk, obnoxious chatter and children running around. To avoid the chaos, Jessica and I retreat to the dorm.

We have been sitting on the edge of Michael's bed, side by side but silent as we both contemplate what is about to happen. I look at the clock, it is time for us to be heading to the pyre.

We stand, but I stop Jessica by grabbing her wrist, "I'm sorry for not telling you the truth sooner. I don't want you to think I don't trust you, I just didn't want you to get the wrong idea or for Eric to get in trouble."

"I was mad at first," She says, turning to face me, "But after I thought about it logically, I knew that it made sense to hide it until after today." She hugs me and when she pulls back she has a huge smile plastered across her face, "Let's get this over with, but later I am expecting major girl talk from you."

I nod and return her smile for a moment before we turn and head toward the test that will decide our future.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

When I open my eyes I am in the room of spiders. Even though the rational part of my brain tells me that it's just a simulation, as the lights flicker out and I start to feel their little legs on my skin, the irrational part of my brain takes over.

I squeeze my eyes closed as tightly as I possibly can since they are the only thing I can still control. I resist the urge to try to scream for as long as I can so that my mouth stays closed, but once the tiny spiders start crawling up my nose, my lips twitch open enough to let them into my mouth.

I lay there gagging, my heart pounding out of control in my chest. I take in as much air as I can through my nose and try to focus my attention on something, anything except for the small arachnids in my throat.

I remember Eric telling us during training the other day that there are only two ways to get past each obstacle: get your heart rate down or face the fear. There is absolutely no way that I can just lay here and let myself be suffocated by spiders blocking my airway, so I have to calm down. I try to go to a happy place, somewhere tranquil and safe.

I picture myself curled up on the couch with my head on Eric's chest, listening to him breath. Imaginary Eric isn't scared or in danger so his breathing is normal, I focus on copying the way that he is breathing. After a few moments, I don't feel the spiders anymore and I can breathe so I tentatively open one eye.

I am in my parent's living room; I turn around to find Andrew standing behind me. At first, I smile at him, but then I see the masked man standing behind him. The man moves the gun he has pointed at my brother's head to make sure that I can see it.

"Tell me, or I kill him."

"Tell you what?" I ask quickly, I can already feel the tears starting to pool in my eyes. My heart is pounding furiously again, this may only be a simulation but I still can't stand the thought of watching my brother die.

The man laughs cruelly, "Don't play dumb, you know what you have to tell me."

Suddenly I have this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I do know what he wants me to say, he wants me to admit to being divergent. I am crying now, when I finally speak my voice is very weak, "I can't."

The man's finger starts to tighten slowly on the trigger, I gasp and the man stops, "Tell. Me. Now."

Think Gabriella, think! I can't face a fear of my brother being murdered in front of me, I can't. I will the Erudite part of my brain to do something clever. I shut my eyes as tight as I can. Think of something, please. A voice in the back of my head instructs me to keep him talking.

"Why do you need to know?" I ask, my eyes still shut but not as tightly. I focus on relaxing my muscles, it takes significant effort since my body's first instinct is to tense up.

"You know why."

I focus on my breathing now, trying to remove myself from the situation as much as I can while keeping the man talking so he won't shoot, "Why shoot him and not me?"

"Because I want to watch you suffer for as long as possible, now tell me," The man replies, clearly exasperated.

I can finally feel my heart start to slow, "You could shoot me somewhere that isn't lethal." The man doesn't answer, I open my eyes and I am no longer in my parent's living room. I let out a long breath, it worked.

I am now standing in the maze from the capture the flag game, standing in the exact spot where Eric kissed me. I take a deep breath to try and clear my head; I need to figure out why this one is in here before I can face it.

I think better when I talk through the problem out loud, "Okay, why I am I afraid of an endless maze?" Not surprisingly, no one answers me, "I'm not afraid of the maze itself, I'm afraid of," I pause looking at myself in the mirror, "I'm not afraid of being lost and not knowing the way out of here. I overthink things and I always second guess myself because I'm afraid of being wrong, making decisions that turn out to be wrong later." I turn toward the way that I know leads to the exit and I follow the path that I know leads to the front door. I face the wall at the spot that should be the way out, "But I should trust my gut, this is a door." I walk forward and grab an invisible door knob and turn, a door appears and I walk through it.

On the other side of the door is my parent's living room again. My parents are sitting on the couch, when I walk in my father looks up and scowls, "Of look Mary, it's our second child, the one who was not intelligent enough to make it in Erudite and had to transfer to a faction that values brawn over brain power."

"She never was good enough for our faction," My mother agrees, blunt as always, "And you know she won't be good enough for Dauntless either. She's far too weak."

"No, I'm going to make it, I've never wanted anything as much as I want to be Dauntless," I argue.

"Simply wishing for something isn't enough, my dear," My father replies, "You have to actually be good enough."

"It's true," A voice from the shadows adds, Max steps forward, "Did you know that during the physical portion of training she lost half of her fights! What a loser!"

I can feel the tears starting to burn behind my eyes. This one is easy to dissect, I have always been afraid that I am nothing more than a disappointing waist of space in the eyes of those I try to impress. I live my life in constant fear that my best will never be good enough.

I take a deep breath, arguing with them doesn't seem to work; probably because they are projections of how I see myself, so I am literally arguing with myself.

"Yeah," I say softly. All three adults stop their mockery and turn to me. "Yes, you're right. I'm not perfect and I make mistakes. No matter how hard I try, I never will be and that absolutely terrifies me." I say, nodding my head, "But you know what? No one else is perfect either."

As I talk through it, I can feel myself calming down. I let out a shaky breath, "And maybe if people can't accept me for me," I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, "And I am trying my best to be the best version of me that I possibly can," I inhale and exhale again as deeply as I can, "Then maybe I shouldn't care what those people think anymore."

The scene before me fades to black and I close my eyes. When I open them again I am standing in the dorm room at the back of the group of transfers and Dauntless-born initiates. Suddenly everyone starts laughing; I push through to the front of the crowd to see what is so funny. Once I have fought my way through, I realize what has everyone's attention, the chalk board. At the top it says "Final Rankings" but when I search for my name it is labeled 15th.

My first thought is that I am factionless, but then something else occurs to me, "There are only fourteen initiates left."

Jessica giggles and Carl yells, "That's because even that cowardly quitter Michael was more Dauntless than you."

"What?" I ask in disbelief. They all start laughing again and I wish I could just disappear. My heart is beating out of control, I need to slow it down because I don't know how to face being afraid that I'm not good enough for Dauntless.

I sit down on the floor, cross my legs, and close my eyes. I focus my thoughts on times that I felt like I fit in here. When we won capture the flag, when I fell onto the net of arms when I went zip-lining, when Uriah and I teamed up to ambush Zeke during paintball. Most of all, any time that I am in Eric's arms.

Eventually the laughter fades away. I open my eyes and find that I am in Eric's apartment. I walk into Eric's room; he is sitting with his back to me, "Eric?"

He turns to look at me, but when he sees me he doesn't smile, "Oh good, you came. I wanted you to come here so that I could tell you that we're over."

"What?" I ask softly.

"I'm breaking up with you," He says bluntly, waving a hand dismissivly, "I'm done with you. It was fun and all in the beginning, but now I'm bored, time to move on."

Every word he says feels like a dagger in my stomach, "You… Why… But…"

"God, were you always this stupid?" He asks before standing and crossing the room, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date."

I am crying now, "Please don't do this."

It's just a simulation, pull it together Gabby! The rational part of my brain chastises me for focusing more on the obstacle than passing it. I take a deep breath and walk over to him, grabbing the collar of his shirt, "Eric loves me, and he won't just leave me." I smile at him and keep staring into his eyes until he fades away.

I am now standing in a dark room, "Hello?"

Suddenly, something wraps around my neck and starts to tighten. My hands fly to my throat, clawing at the rope constricting my airway. I have always hated things being around my neck, so the thought of being strangled terrifies me.

This one should be easy to get passed, face the fear by making it worse. I start to walk forward, each step makes the rope tighten and constrict my airway more. My vision starts to blur and spots start to dance across the dimly lit room. Finally the pressure on my neck goes away and I immediately start massaging my throat with my right hand, taking a series of deep breaths just to prove to myself that I can.

When the next fear starts, I am back in the pit, right next to the chasm. On the other side of the pit, two figures appear. I watch as they have a heated argument and then as the figure on the right pulls out a gun. It all happens in a flash: the gun goes off, the second figure drops, and the shooter runs off.

I hurry to the fallen figure, but when I am almost to them, I freeze and my heart shatters. Crumpled in a heap on the ground, surrounded by a pool of blood, is Eric.

"No, no, no," I yell as I cross the distance between us and fall to my knees next to him. I pull his head into my lap, "Eric? Come on babe, please don't be dead."

His eyes open slightly, "Gidg?"

I sigh with relief, "Yeah, I'm here. Stay with me okay."

He grimaces in pain, "I'm sorry."

"No, don't say that, you're fine. This is nothing," I say quickly placing a hand on the side of his face.

"I love you," He whispers so softly that I am only half sure he actually says it. His eyes roll back in his head and his body goes limp.

"No!" I shake him, the tears flowing so hard that I can't even make out his features through my blurry teary eyes, "No! Eric, wake up, please!"

I sit there for what feels like hours before I finally calm down enough to end this nightmare. The scene around me fades and I am in the dingy room where the fear landscapes are conducted. I stare at the wall, at the word Dauntless spray-painted there.

I am still on my knees on the floor when the door opens behind me. I scramble to my feet and whip the tears away before turning around. Eric, Max, and one other leader are standing behind me.

"Congratulations," Max says with a smile, "You made it through, results will be announced tonight after dinner."

I shake each of their hands, when I get to Eric he holds my hand for a second longer than necessary and asks me with his eyes if I am going to be okay. I smile at him to let him know that I'm alright and he lets go.

I am about to leave when Max turns to Eric and quietly says, "We'll discuss this later."

It suddenly dawns on me, that those personal fears about Eric were seen by all five leaders. I think about trying to talk to Max about it, but Eric tells me to leave with his eyes.

I walk through the crowd as quickly as possible, ignoring the couple of people who try to high five me or talk to me. I walk until I reach the net; I climb up onto it and roll to the middle. I close my eyes and lay there as still as I can, trying desperately to ignore the memory of Eric's blood on my hands.

I glance at my watch after what feels like only a few minutes but it turns out to have actually been a couple hours. I close my eyes again; Eric should be her any minute.

A few minutes later I hear footsteps, "Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how bad is it that they all know about us?" When I don't get a response I open my eyes and sit up. It isn't Eric.

I don't recognize the person before me but I sense that something is wrong. I start working out the best exit strategy, but before I have a chance to make a move the man raises a gun and then second later everything goes black.

**TO BE CONTINUED… *role end credits***

**Leave me a review! Talk to you guys tomorrow night!**


	19. Chapter 18

**Okay so sorry for the cliffy but it had to be done. I feel that I should tell you now, I have had the end of last chapter and this chapter planned and partially written since I posted chapter 1.**

** .Dot ****– I'm glad you're back and that you have enjoyed the last few chapters!**

**Olivia-Ivy**** – Glad the fears went over well, and yes (as I said above) it had to be done.**

**DauntlessShadowhunterChick**** – aww shucks! ;p**

**Guest (Georgia)**** – Both comments went through no problem, I still have it set so that I can monitor guest reviews (even though I always approve them) and I was at work so they didn't get approved right away. Thank you for reading and thinking I'm awesome lol**

**marisac212 – Glad to hear it, thank you!**

**You guys all rock! I still don't own Eric or Divergent, I'm hoping that by 18/19 chapters in that has been made clear already.**

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Eric's POV**

I am standing in the door of the train car, the wind in my face, watching the city fly. The buildings shine, illuminated by rising sun, I raise a hand to shield my eyes from the blinding light. I clench my fist, ignoring the stinging sensation that spreads through my hand from my split knuckles. I haven't bothered to clean the blood off, it's dried now and I have had bigger things on my mind.

I clench my tired eyes; I didn't bother sleeping at all last night. How could I, when every time I close my eyes the events of last night play through my mind? Four's words play through my mind in an endless loop.

_She's gone, Eric._

But how can she be gone? Just like that, one moment I am waking up with her in my bed and the next she's… My fist starts to tremble and my eyes burn. I sit down and close my eyes to ease the stinging sensation. I don't try to stop it, I let my mind relive last night…

_I am sitting on my couch, tapping my foot anxiously. Where is she, it's nearly midnight? When she wasn't at the net between the final tests and dinner I just assumed that she had gone to the dorm to cool down and lost track of time. Or that her friends had insisted that she come with them to celebrate. _

_But when I got to the cafeteria for dinner and she wasn't there, I felt it in the pit of my stomach that something was very wrong. Her friends were all there, and they kept checking the doors like they were waiting for her too. She never showed up. _

_She came in second in the final rankings, but she wasn't there to enjoy it. Her friend Jessica came in eleventh, she'll be factionless and I'm not looking forward to being the one who has to tell her when I do find her. _

_After dinner I searched every inch of the complex, short of insisting on searching everyone's personal apartments. I checked the net, the dorm, the pyre, and roof near the train tracks. I talked to all of her transfer friends; I enlisted Meghan's help to check with everyone else that knows her. _

_Someone knocks softly on my door, I stand up and hurry to open it. It's Four. _

"_Can I come in?" He asks awkwardly._

_I nod and he walks in, rubbing his hands on the sides of his pants nervously. "Did you find anything out?" I ask quickly. _

_He takes a deep breath, "I was walking through the pit when I noticed them pulling something out of the chasm, a body. I figured it was one of the initiates who got cut, decided being dead would be better than being factionless."_

_I nod for him to continue, "And?"_

"_When I got closer," He pauses and looks at me with an emotion I can't Identify, "When I got closer I noticed that the body had brown hair with blue highlights." _

_In an instant my blood runs cold. I feel my face twist in furry; I lunge forward and grab the collar of his shirt and slam him against the nearest wall. "That isn't even a little bit funny Four!" I yell._

"_I'm not playing some cruel practical joke," He doesn't raise his voice back at me, he just holds my stare, and in that instant I know that he is telling the truth, "She's gone, Eric." _

_I let go of him and take a couple steps back. I stare at my hands for a moment before turning and punching the wall next to his head. I turn and walk out of my apartment, I don't bother to shut my door and I don't stop until I reach Max's office. _

_As I suspected he is inside, "Where the hell is she?" _

_Max looks up, seeming surprised for a moment by my outburst, but then he shakes his head slowly, "I take it someone has already told you." _

_I take a step forward threateningly, "Where. Is. She."_

"_She's dead," He says, tilting his head back to look at me for a moment before reaching for a bottle on his desk. I watch him take a long drink. _

"_Yeah," I say angrily, "I got that. Where is her body?"_

_Max shakes his head, "Already sent it off to be cremated; didn't want anyone to see it. The story will be that her fear landscape was too much for her to handle, she went crazy and jumped." _

_I shake my head and growl, "I don't care what lie you tell to the others, but I obviously know that isn't what happened, so what aren't telling me?"_

_He takes another drink, "The girl had a hole blown in her chest, someone shot her, but obviously we can't have the general population knowing that someone was murdered." He takes a deep breath, before moving on, like we aren't talking about my girlfriend's murder, "We move everyone below her up one, so that Jessica girl has already been told that she doesn't have to leave." _

"_Was it Jeanine?" I ask bluntly, but he won't answer me, he just goes back to nursing his bottle. _

And that brings me back to the present, with me on the train going to confront my boss for murdering the woman I love. When I get to the right stop, I jump from the train and walk to the back entrance of Erudite headquarters. I head straight for Jeanine's office once I'm inside, not really caring who see me and ignoring the curious looks from the people I pass.

I throw open the door and barge right in without knocking, "Why?"

Jeanine looks up, seeming at least a bit thrown off by my actions, "Why… What? I must ask that you use complete sentences if you expect a conversation with me."

"Why," I pause and take a deep breath, "Why did you kill Gabriella?"

"Gabriella? Is that the young lady you have been spending all of your time with?" Jeanine asks, faining ignorance as she leans forward to rest her chin in her hands. "I hadn't heard that she had passed away."

"She didn't," I am starting to hyperventilate now. "She didn't pass away," I spit the words out, my fists shaking violently, "She was murdered. Someone shot her last night before dumping her body in the underground river running through our complex, but you already know that."

Jeanine studies me for a moment, her eyes are those of a hunter laying a trap, "And what would make you suspect that it was me responsible for this act?"

"Because she was divergent," I can't stop the rage; I walk forward and slam my fists down on her desk, "And so you had her murdered."

Jeanine raises an eyebrow and I realize too late that I have stumbled all too easily into her trap, "She was? That's very interesting considering that you vehemently denied, just days ago, having seen any indication that she displayed any divergent tendencies."

"I thought…" I start but she quickly stands and cuts me off.

"You didn't think, that's the problem," She walks over to the window and stares down at the street below, "You let your infatuation with some stupid girl get in the way of your mission."

"She wasn't just some stupid girl," I growl back.

Jeanine laughs before turning back to me, "That's not the point; the point is that she was in the way." She folds her arms and levels a glare at me, "No, Eric, I didn't kill her or order her death." She takes a menacing step toward me, "But if I ever find out that you lied to me again, or if you let anything get in the way of following my orders again, the consequences will be much worse."

I take a deep breath, "Why should I believe you? Believe that you didn't kill her when I know your track record better probably than anyone else."

She smiles at me cruelly, "Because if I had killed that little brat I wouldn't hide it, I'd wear it as a badge of pride. She was divergent scum and the world is a better place without her in it."

At this I fling myself at her, but before I can get to her she pulls a gun out of a compartment under her desk and levels it at my forehead, "Wrong move." I freeze, my eyes fixed on hers as I breath in and out heavily. She smiles maliciously before whipping me across the side of the head with her gun, "Pull yourself together you pathetic excuse for a man." She walks over and lazily sits in her office chair, "I'll ignore this incident, chalk it up to a momentary lapse in judgment, but I trust that in the future you will show more restraint."

I just stand there watching her; I don't know what to believe. Now that I'm here, I don't believe that Jeanine killed her, but who else would have wanted her dead.

"I'll expect you to keep a better eye out for the divergent from now on," Jeanine says simply, "If you screw up again I'll put a bullet through your skull myself, now get out of my office."

I am too numb to argue with her anymore; I just turn and leave the office. I walk until I am in a deserted hallway before I stop and lean my forehead against the wall. I stay there for a while, trying to think about what to do next.

I walk slowly through the hall to the stairwell, stopping the first person I meet to ask them where I can find Andrew Lester. I walk into a small lab on the second floor of Erudite headquarters and find Andrew entering numbers in a computer.

When he looks up and sees that it's me, he freezes and gives me a questioning look, "God Eric, what happened to you?"

I take a deep breath, ignoring his concern and focus on the reason I came here, "Gab-Gabriella is dead."

"What?" He asks his voice barely more than a whisper, "Please tell me I heard you wrong." I can't bring myself to say it again so I just shake my head and we stand there in silence.

**xxxxxxxxxx**

I am stand near the edge of the chasm, watching the water rush by when I hear someone walk up behind me. It is late, everyone should be in bed. I turn my head just enough to see Four standing behind me, "What do you want?"

He takes a deep breath, "I just thought I would see how you were holding up."

I can't help but laugh, "That's reallycute, Four. Now you care?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

I whirl around and stalk up to him, "It means that this whole thing is your fault."

"My fault? How is this my fault?"

"You tried to turn her against me," I growl, "Because of you I had to erase that recording. You scared her into thinking I was something I'm not," I push at Fours chest; I'm in his face now, "Because of you people started getting suspicious."

He scoffs and throws his head to the side, "So it's my fault for trying to keep one of my initiates safe."

"Safe?" I yell before shoving the heel of my hand into his shoulder, "Yeah, it looks like she was safe."

Four growls, "I was only making sure that she knew what she was getting into." He stares at me like I'm some sort of monster.

I stare back, "How many times do I have to tell you stiff, I didn't kill your boyfriend."

At this comment Four pushes me back. We stand there staring at each other for a few seconds before someone throws the first punch. By the time someone happens to walk by and stop the fight we have rolled to the edge of the chasm.

"What the hell is going on here?" Zeke yells. I feel someone pull me off of Four and hold me back, Zeke runs to help Four up.

I manage to shake of the person holding me back and turn to see that it is Zeke's kid brother. We all stand there for a moment, the only sounds are Four and I's labored breathes. After a moment I swipe at the blood coming from my nose with the back of my hand and start walking toward my apartment.

**xxxxxxxxxxxx**

Gabriella's funeral was very typically Dauntless, Max made a speech and everyone cheered. People stumbled around in a drunken stupor, celebrating the life of a person that most have them had never met.

Her actual funeral took place late that night; we all met at the train and left the compound. We decided on going to Navy Pier earlier in the day, it was the easiest place for Andrew to meet us. I am standing with Andrew at the back of the group, Gabby's urn tucked under my left arm and a bottle of whisky clutched in my right hand.

Gabby's transfer friends are standing toward the front, Jessica has a box with a piece of chocolate cake in it that she is picking at halfheartedly. Jeff and Carl stand on either side of her, paintball guns held loosely at their sides. Jeff, Meghan, Zeke, Uriah, Four, and Shauna stand in a cluster in the middle. I really don't want Four here, but I don't have the energy to fight with him right now.

I pull the bottle up to my lips and take a drink before pushing through the others to the front. They all move out of my way as quickly as they can, like I'm some sort of monster and not another human being who just lost the only person they really cared about. I set the urn on an old post at the end of the pier, making sure it is steady before I step to the side.

I turn and nod to Jeff, he grabs a bottle from Zeke and a shot glass. "Gabby, I didn't know you for very long," He pauses, a small smile playing on his lips, "But I admired how strong your will was, you never gave up." With that he fills the shot glass and hands the bottle to Carl. He gulps down the contents and then throws the shot glass into the marsh.

Carl disentangles his hand from Jessica's and steps forward, "Even though Gabby and I grew up together, I never really knew her until we got here." He fills a shot glass, "I wish I had paid attention sooner."

He hands the bottle to Jessica and she hands him her cake, "Gabby and I bonded over our mutual distaste for shopping," Meghan laughs and Jessica clutches the bottle more tightly as tears fill her eyes. She turns to face the urn, like Gabby is standing their listening, "You made me promise to eat cake until I threw up and not to cry if you ever died, but you also said that neither of us was dying anytime soon." By now she is full on sobbing as she pours herself a shot, "You didn't uphold your part so I'm going back on my promise not to cry."

Once she is done, Carl wraps an arm around her waist and pulls her back, the sight makes something inside my chest clench painfully. I can't take it anymore; I throw the bottle in my hand to the ground and listen to the sound as it shatters. I turn and walk away, not knowing where I'm going and not caring.

No one follows me, why would they? I'm just the guy that most of them don't really like but felt obligated to bring along since I was her boyfriend. Andrew is the only one who has an excuse, he has learned from experience to leave me alone when I'm angry.

I end up on the roof of the maze building, lying on my back and staring up at the cloudy night sky. The feeling of the cool wind blowing over me is so familiar that when I close my eyes I can almost fool myself into thinking that we are back on the roof of our old apartment building. I imagine her there next to me, talking about a research paper for school or complaining about someone in her class picking on her.

I open my eyes and look at the empty space beside me. I've never been one of those guys who shows emotion, but no one else is around so why should I care. "Gidget," I feel the burn behind my eyes start to intensify, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." I feel the first tear roll down my cheek, "I should have protected you better, I should have made you stay up in the pyre where I could keep an eye on you. I should have warned you that you might be in danger, I…"

I suddenly feel this tremendous feeling of anger well up inside of me, "Why am I the one doing all of the apologizing?" I ask the wind. "This isn't fair, you can't-you can't just leave me like this," I am crying much harder now.

I stand and walk to the edge of the roof, I watch leaves swirl around on the sidewalk below before turning back to stare at where I had been laying. "Everyone else thinks I'm a monster, you're the only one who believed in me," My hands curl into fists and fight to hold in a scream. "It they all think I'm a monster, then I'll be one." I feel like something inside of me has shut off, "If you're not here, then what do I care what anyone else thinks about me?"

I whip the tears away with the back of my hand, "I love you Gabriella Lester and I always will."

**THE END**

**So… don't kill me okay. Epilogue in the morning.**


	20. Epilogue

**(Review responses at the bottom, please read the AN)**

**Epilogue**

It's a surreal feeling, watching your own funeral from afar.

I look on as everyone gathers on the edge of the pier. I feel my chest tighten as Eric sets the urn that supposedly contains my ashes on the post and stands guard off to the side. I make a mental note to ask someone later whose ashes are inside if not mine. As Jessica breaks down and starts crying I feel the tears start to fall.

"Are you doing okay? Want to stop watching now?" The man standing beside me, I think he said his name was George, asks softly.

I shake my head, "No to both questions."

He smiles at me apologetically, "I wish I could say it gets easier with time, but watching the people you love trying to cope and wishing you could just reach out and touch them one last time never does, no matter what anyone tries to tell you." He takes a deep breath, "Other than that, life here at the Bureau isn't so bad."

A small hysterical laugh escapes the tight line of my lips, "Accepting not so bad at someone else's insistence when you had great." I shake my head before sarcastically adding, "That sounds completely fair to me."

George chuckles, "Who ever said that life was fair?"

The sound of shattering glass through the control room speakers pulls us both back to watching the screen. I watch Eric as he walks away from my friends and Andrew. The cameras follow him to the roof of the maze. He flings himself down on the roof and closes his eyes, he smiles for a second but then he opens his eyes and the smile disappears.

George must notice that I am about to lose it because he turns to the two people monitoring the feed, "Let's step outside and give her a moment." It's late so the four of us were the only ones in the room; once they are gone I walk closer to the monitors.

"_Gidget,"_ Eric's voice comes through the speakers loud and clear in the silent room. _"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," _He says softly as a single tear rolls down his cheek.

I abandon all attempts to keep from completely breaking down. "Don't apologize, Eric," I whisper between sobs.

"_I should have protected you better, I should have made you stay up in the pyre where I could keep an eye on you. I should have warned you that you might be in danger, I…" _He stops suddenly, seeming to switch from grief to anger very quickly. _"Why am I the one doing all of the apologizing?"_

I chuckle, the tears still rolling down my cheeks, "I know, I'm sorry for putting you through this." It occurs to me how weird this must look to anyone who is watching me, having a conversation with a recording of my boyfriend.

"_This isn't fair, you can't-you can't just leave me like this,"_ He is crying now and the sight of him like that makes me feel like I am drowning.

"I'm so sorry," I whisper, "I never would have left if they had given me a choice." I think back to waking up yesterday morning, still hazy from the tranquilizer dart that the mystery man, who I have now learned is named Alvin, shot me with. I tried to fight my way out of the room then even though I could barely stand so I can't imagine what it would gone very well if they had tried to ask me to leave.

He stands and walks to the edge of the roof, watching something on the ground with wrapped interest before turning back to look at the roof. _"Everyone else thinks I'm a monster, you're the only one who believed in me." _I sob and lean my forehead against the edge of the screen. _"It they all think I'm a monster, then I'll be one. If you're not here, then what do I care what anyone else thinks about me?"_

"Don't talk like that," I whisper, "You know you're better than that." I have stopped sobbing but the tears are still flowing.

I have my eyes closed tightly when I hear his voice again, _"I love you Gabriella Lester and I always will." _

My legs give way and I fall to the floor. I put my head in my hands and cry; I've never felt this broken before. My chest feels tight and I start shaking.

I open my eyes and study the room through blurry eyes. To most people this wouldn't look like a prison, but that's exactly what it is. A prison dressed up to look like a fully functioning community in order to keep people like me, who they have plucked from their lives under the guise of protection, complacent.

I am never allowed to see him again and it is killing me. I stand again and watch him as he walks toward the train. I tentatively reach a hand out to touch the image of him on the screen.

In that moment the distance between us feels too great to conquer. All the memories of his lips on mine and my head resting on his chest feel like a lifetime ago.

'Stop crying and do something about it,' The voice in my head chastises me.

"How?" I ask aloud as I wipe the tears away with my shirt sleeve, it's a useless action since I start crying again as soon as I have finished, "How am I supposed to do something about it?"

_He chuckles and we fall back into silence. After a while he stands and helps me up, he kisses me goodnight and I am about to head back up the path when he grabs my wrist, "That's one of the things I love about you, Gabriella Lester." I turn back to face him, cocking my head to the side curiously, "You never give up, or accept defeat until you have exhausted all your options. You always fight until you can't fight anymore, no matter how bad you're losing; both literally and metaphorically." _

The memory floods back painfully and I force the sob that accompanies it to stay unuttered, "Okay, Eric, I promise not to give up." I stay to watch him jump onto the train before turning to leave, but I stop and turn back just before I reach the door. I watch as the train flies through the city for a moment before echoing his words softly, "I love you Eric and I always will."

**AN: PLEASE READ!**

**Okay so this was an epilogue but also sort of an alternate ending. When I first came up with the idea for this story, Gabby was supposed to die. I mean that was always the point of this story, to explain why Eric is so messed up. SO in my mind, in ****Veronica's version**** of events my story ends at the end of last chapter, explaining why Four and Eric dislike each other and Eric's… mental instability. **

**BUT, I am planning to write an AU sequel where Gabby is still alive (per this epilogue) outside the fence. I am thinking that the second story is going to be an alternate version of Insurgent (but nothing is set in stone yet, let me know what you think of the idea) and I should start posting it pretty soon. If you have anything you want to see (things you want me to change about the events of Insurgent; things you want left canonically correct,; characters, canon or OCs from this fic, you want to see again; etc.) or any other ideas review/PM me.**

**Laura013 ****– Well I hope that this solved your annoyance about Gabby's death. I was telling my sister about my story around the time I posted chapter 5, and she was like, "Why do your stories ALWAYS have to end in death?!" (I had an account on another website that was sort of known for its really sad, dramatic short stories) It was that day that I came up with this idea. Thank you sooo much for all of the support and encouragement, I hope you keep reading. **

**Olivia-Ivy**** – Hope you liked the epilogue. And let me know what you want to see in the sequel. Thank you for supporting my story, I could always count on you to review even if no one else did. I hope to keep hearing your feedback in part 2!**

**Thank you to ****everyone**** who has read, reviewed, favorited, and followed this story. You have no idea how much it has meant to me. – readwritereview20**


	21. Sequel

**Author's Note:**

**Hello again! Just a quick note to make sure you guys knew that the prologue for the sequel is up and I should have chapter 1 up tomorrow night or Tuesday. While I am already here:**

**Olivia-Ivy – Thank you and I'm glad you at least hate me less now. Definitely PM if you think of any ideas, I'd love to hear them.**

**TheBenBen – Thank you! Sorry, I know I have a tendency to rip people's hearts out, do the Mexican hat dance around them, then hand them back and be like "lol, just kidding."**

**Laura013 – Thank you as always and sorry for being pure evil and tricking you all, well not really. ;p**

**3K7 – I have some ideas for that part already, I'm getting really excited.**

**marisac212 – Glad you liked it!**

**random person – I like that, I probably won't change the chapters I have up but I like that logic and will use it for part 2.**

**I hope to keep hearing from all of you over on the second story! Love you guys!**


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